


Drop a Stone 2020 version -- Chancellor Caldwell has an Adventure  -- The Whim of Fortuna

by Smoke_Bramandin



Series: Drop a Stone [9]
Category: Legacy of Kain
Genre: argument, idiot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 11:07:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 27,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25848535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smoke_Bramandin/pseuds/Smoke_Bramandin
Summary: The Nature Guardian's father has concerns over the way his nine-year-old son is being treated by the Circle.Then when the young Guardians are sixteen, Sarah gambles against Fortuna.
Series: Drop a Stone [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1605454
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

Birney was nine. Archimedes had gotten tired of dealing with Head Chancellor Caldwell directly, but he had managed to convince the politician to accept Sarah as an intermediary. It was not a lie, but Archimedes said that he was stretched thin between his responsibilities, and then told the Chancellor that making demands of his personal attention meant that he would have to let the non-human members of the Circle deal with the bulk of Birney’s education. 

Sarah was escorted from the edge of the city to Caldwell’s office. She would have been chained if Archimedes hadn’t sent a message that he found it insulting. She gave a bow that meant ‘I serve someone who is higher status than you’ but Caldwell had no idea that there even was a gesture language in the ancient courts.

“Don’t bother with your prepared report,” Caldwell said. “What is Archimedes really doing with my son?”

“I’m sure that he is being given what he needs,” Sarah said.

“You don’t know?” Caldwell asked.

“I have not met any of the young Guardians,” Sarah said. “I receive all of my information second-hand.”

Caldwell frowned. “Why is that?”

Sarah rubbed her spars together. “I am under orders not to get near them.”

“You’re going to have to give me more complete answers than that,” Caldwell said.

“It’s embarrassing. My service to the Timestreamer is punishment for a mistake that upset him personally,” Sarah said.

“Does he have the authority to do that? I thought that crimes against the Circle still had to be handled by outside authorities,” Caldwell said.

“The nature of what I did…” Sarah shook her head. “No matter. Kain has the authority as patriarch over all of the clans, though saying that serving the Timestreamer was by his order would be a highly creative interpretation of it.”

“What was that order?” Caldwell asked.

“I don’t think that I should discuss it with a human,” Sarah said.

“Archimedes is human,” Caldwell said.

“The type of human that associates with hunters,” Sarah corrected.

“Did you kill before the treaty?” Caldwell asked.

Sarah hesitated before nodding. “Is there a reason you’re asking me this?”

“You’re being reluctant about answering my questions,” Caldwell said. “I wouldn’t have to press you if you were more open with me.”

Sarah held a neutral expression, but inwardly she snorted at the insinuation that she was forcing him to pry at her secrets. She decided to throw him a bone to keep him from tearing at her flesh. “Kain’s orders are none of your concern. As for what Archimedes is punishing me for… I keep forgetting that the two things were even related.”

Caldwell frowned. “How often do you interpret your orders creatively?”

Sarah narrowed her eyes. “I strive to follow the spirit of them when I can.”

Caldwell went to the window and indicated that Sarah should look as well. “I love both of my sons equally. Simply because it falls to Sherrod instead of Birney to replace me as Head Chancellor does not mean I’m willing to abandon Birney’s welfare.”

Sarah looked down at the courtyard, where the Chancellor’s six-year-old was being put through fencing drills. “What happened to his arm?”

“Sherrod keeps trying to use it,” Caldwell said.

Sarah flared her wings as she realized that they were trying to ‘correct’ the boy being left-handed. “That’s barbaric!”

Caldwell flinched. Sarah crossed her arms and hunched as she backed away, trying to mix a submissive signal with her aggressive wing-movements and desire to growl. 

Caldwell relaxed slightly. “Using the left hand is an invitation to evil.”

Sarah shook her head. “It’s a trait, that’s all. It doesn’t mean anything. Trying to fix what’s not broken will make him clumsy, he might stutter or develop personality problems. If nothing else, it must be extremely frustrating.”

“I know,” Caldwell said, “but an official must use the correct hand.”

“It’s terrible. Was this done to Birney as well?” Sarah asked. 

“He was using the right hand,” Caldwell said.

Sarah calmed. “That’s lucky. I strongly encourage you to let Sherrod use his left hand for some things, especially during academics. Writing dexterity with his right hand can be its own thing. It will be extra work to train both sides, to let him hide what shouldn’t be without being badly hurt by it, but it can be done.”

“Are you sinister?” Caldwell asked.

“I had other undesirable idiosyncrasies as a child, but I favored my right. When my mother was growing up, they knew better than to do anything about her favoring the left. The superstition was dead, but some things were still difficult because of right-handed bias in the way objects were designed. The house was set up for her needs, so there are some simple things that I did left-handed out of convenience,” Sarah said. “I apologize for intruding on your business when it wasn’t my place, but I hope you’ll take my advice.”

“I’ll take it under consideration,” Caldwell said. “It seems that you have a soft spot for children. Could it be that the order to stay away from the young Guardians means that they’re doing something to Birney that you wouldn’t like?”

Sarah shook her head. “Their welfare is a priority. I trust the others, but I cannot be trusted around the children. I’ve hurt too many people with my mistakes.”

“That you were able to enter this city and leave with an orphan without being seen indicates that you can be stealthy enough to see what’s going on first-hand without being caught,” Caldwell said. “What can I do to get you to do that?”

“I will not do that without the Timestreamer’s knowledge, and he will order me not to,” Sarah said. “What I can do is make your concerns known to someone who would be sympathetic to them and isn’t under the same restrictions as myself.”

“Not good enough,” Caldwell said. “I have a pretty good idea of who you are, but someone else might be able to lie to me.”

“Even Birney?” Sarah asked.

“If they’re harming him, who knows what sort of threats they’ve used to keep him from telling me about it. I can see that he’s holding things back,” Caldwell said. “If you don’t look to see what’s going on without giving them the chance to hide what they’re doing, I will take Birney back.”

“I need to talk to someone else about this; I can do that without the Timestreamer’s permission,” Sarah said.

“No.”

Sarah flapped her wings in irritation as she relayed Caldwell’s threat and a bit of context to Archimedes and Keturah. “When I say that I need to talk to someone else, what I mean is that asking for guidance from someone I can trust is an absolute necessity for everyone’s safety.”

“I am an honorable man,” Caldwell said.

“I mean no disrespect, but it is your viewpoint that is a problem,” Sarah said. “The people that I trust look far outside of themselves, while you seem to barely acknowledge that there is a world outside of Letestadt’s walls.”

“So you won’t check on Birney for me,” Caldwell said.

Sarah pretended to be lost in thought as she consulted with Archimedes.

“I would like to help in any way I can within my limits. Perhaps you should sneak into Valeholm yourself if that’s what it will take to ease your mind, though sneaking up on the Timestreamer is a matter of luck,” Sarah said. “If you take this path, I want you to remember something important. I concede that you are capable of governing this city and training your successor, but you may be inadequate for raising a Guardian even if you try your best. Being properly prepared is a matter of life and death for Birney.”


	2. Chapter 2

It was a warm day in New Eden. The young Guardians, plus Archimedes, Hardegin, and Keturah, were lounging comfortably on the shore of the lake. They had been discussing history when Sarah’s interruption came through. Archimedes made a sour expression as he mentally dictated instructions.

Archimedes’ expression softened again. “Now then, what do you think about this rule? We had decided that we weren’t allowed to use our Pillar-magic against each other without permission, either by direct consent or majority consensus.”

“Absolutely,” Tanyanika said. “That rule wouldn’t have stopped Nupraptor, but who knows what else is possible?”

Most of the other children nodded, but Jahangir looked unsure. Archimedes waited a moment, but the young Conflict Guardian didn’t say anything.

Archimedes continued. “The decision was inspired by Nupraptor, but also Mortanious’ actions against Malek and Kain. We never got to the point of refining just where the line should be drawn, but technically I’ve broken that rule, and so did Sarah.” That prompted a gasp from Tanyanika, but Archimedes continued, “We were forgiven in both cases because of the same circumstance. I was about your age when it happened. Kain’s temper has improved, but in both instances it was to prevent him from physically attacking us, and neither of us actually hurt him.”

“What exactly did happen?” Grigori asked.

“Sarah somehow made Kain unable to move his body while leaving him conscious and still able to carry out his duties. As for what I did, it happened just over there.” Archimedes pointed and called on his magic. Everyone watched the memory-ghost as Kain lunged for Archimedes and slowed while Archimedes fell backwards into the water much faster than should have been possible. Then Finneas shoved Kain on his ass. There was no sound, but what happened was clear enough.

Jahangir finally spoke. “That raises an interesting question about myself. If being good at fighting is part of being the Conflict Guardian, then what happens when someone confronts me physically?”

“Try not to hurt them too badly,” Hardegin said. “I did start a fight with Kain once, but it was with the Circle’s blessing. Kain used to rule this world through violence and intimidation, and it took a while for him to break that habit. I wasn’t able to beat him, but it did get him to calm down a little. He didn’t start showing real improvement until Sarah challenged him and won without her powers.”

“She was stronger than you?” Jahangir asked.

Hardegin shook his head. “Weakest vampire, and she was badly injured, but she kept taunting him after he threw her across the room twice. He might have kept going if I hadn’t told him to stop.”

Jahangir frowned. “But you said she won.”

Hardegin shrugged. “There’s more than one way to win a fight. She wasn’t even trying to land a physical blow. Beating her up was a humiliation that Kain couldn’t live down, though her deciding to use her powers to defend herself against another attack came only a few hours later.”

Grigori asked, “What about magic outside of our aspect?” His father was a wind-elementalist and his mother was a fire-elementalist. He couldn’t get the hang of fire, but it was rare for a vempari with any magical ability to not be able to do a little wind-magic if he was taught how. Grigori summoned a breeze that ruffled everyone’s hair as a demonstration.

Archimedes blinked and turned to Keturah. “Why didn’t we think of that? Cantrips are one thing, but if it’s possible for me to learn something a bit more aggressive, I’ll have another option for defending myself.”

Keturah shrugged. “I don’t know any combat magic outside of my domain, either.”

“My magic isn’t suitable for combat at all, unless you count making someone incapable of defending themselves while I stab them.” Archimedes turned back to the group. “Really that sort of thing doesn’t come up as often as it sounds like. We haven’t escalated beyond yelling in nearly two decades, but the point is to keep a fight from causing too much damage to each other or the surrounding area.”

“Both times you broke the rule of not using Pillar magic against each other, it was defending against someone stronger, to keep from getting hurt without hurting the attacker,” Birney said. “It sounds like the rule was unfair when having to face down vampires.”

Archimedes nodded. “That they were given to growl at each other seemed like an advantage as well, though oddly it didn’t seem to matter much with us mortals.”

“I guess we forgot to tell you that we made a rule about that.” Hardegin swallowed. “Not really a rule, actually.”

Keturah gave a wicked chuckle. “There wasn’t an official vote, but when I said I wouldn’t put up with that sort of thing, they immediately stopped treating myself and Chixiksi like they did each other.”

“Bavol won’t be with us once you are confirmed, leaving Kain as the only vampire left,” Archimedes said. “I doubt that he’ll attack anyone again, considering that in both instances, his aggression was fueled by a grudge against me because of my predecessor. But you might want to consider the possibility as a simple thought-exercise. As for the rule about using magic against each other, do you think that it needs to be amended?”

The children thought, and Birney said, “Reasonable defense. If there’s a way to stop a fight down without someone getting hurt, do it. But what is the punishment for attacking with magic or going too far in defending yourself?”

“That is a discussion we never had before,” Archimedes said. “To break that rule in a way that isn’t justifiable, what does that say about the fitness of the person who did it? What other irresponsible things might they do?”

Silence stretched like a pall for a full minute before Archimedes said, “I think that’s enough for today.”

Usually the children kept chatting as they relaxed from their lessons, but today they were gloomy as they wandered off in different directions.

Keturah frowned at Archimedes. “That last part wasn’t necessary. Just because you were fearing for your life at this age doesn’t mean that you should be asking them to think about things like that.”

Archimedes said, “Hopefully it’s a question that they never need to answer. I don’t want to see the Circle fail again.”

“Would you at least try to keep from being so grim until they’re a bit older?” Keturah snapped. “Sometimes I think that you take this too seriously.”

Archimedes had been gazing towards where the children had passed out of sight, but he startled and stared at Keturah. “That’s not possible.”

Keturah spat something in Hylden. 

“Ozker didn’t teach us that one,” Archimedes said.

Keturah made a gesture that meant ‘I shouldn’t be surprised and I’m not’ before saying, “Literally it means pincushion. It refers to a tactic we used during the war. It was stupid to be willing to fly into the jaws of death like that.”

Archimedes backed up slightly with a fearful expression. “Keturah, why are you acting like this?”

“We can’t abandon carponus e donadi, but I’ve seen you almost let the weight of the world crush you too many times to condone you trying to make the others so strict about it,” Keturah said. “Just… go easier on them before they become as miserable as you are. It’s not a good thing.”

Archimedes stared in quiet shock. The silence stretched before he said, “I need to think about this.”


	3. Chapter 3

Caldwell winced as he followed Radley through Valeholm. Sarah had coached him on how to look like a commoner, to disguise his identity, but he was beginning to think that her insistence that he put a pebble in his shoe was some form of malicious joke.

Radley said, “I see my foster-father over there. It will look weird if I don’t stop to say hello.”

They headed toward a small gathering of men who were leaning against a cow paddock. They were passing around a bottle and taking turns drinking from it.

The men noticed Radley and one said, “How’s Letestadt treating you?”

“I’m actually doing pretty well. I work as a clerk for Sub-chancellor Mendel. This is my traveling companion, Kendall,” Radley said. “This is my foster-father, Jeremy, Meldon from Aschedorf, and Cleavon.”

“What brings you here?” Jeremy asked.

Radley shook his head. “I don’t want to spread any rumors about my business.”

Cleavon indicated a passing vempari and asked Caldwell, “What do you think about our little infestation?”

Caldwell paused in thought. “I know a little bit about them, but I’m wondering why you’re willing to live among them.”

“We were here first.” Jeremy spit. “They started by living nearby and trading with us, but then they introduced us to the monster they worshipped and got us to do it too. Even after we were shown the truth, more vempari came and acted like they still had a right to live among us, and some people decided to let them. The mayor even passed a law that our children had to go to their school; it’s like they don’t even remember that the vempari led us astray once already.”

“They acknowledge their mistakes,” Radley said. “All we learned in school was things like writing and math.”

“I could have taught you that,” Jeremy said. “I wouldn’t have bothered teaching you tanning if I knew you weren’t going to use it.”

Radley shrugged apologetically. “I would have come back after learning more about Fortuna, but being a clerk suits me. I am grateful that you made sure I knew how to do something that would have guaranteed me a job if I hadn’t gotten that one.”

Meldon rolled his eyes. “Looks like there’s some sort of problem everywhere. Aschedorf was developing a deity problem on top of vampires until they started knocking over shrines. At least the vampires have a reason to let humans live in their city.”

“The vempari ignore the vampire that took my son.” Jeremy turned to Caldwell. “How many people live in Letestadt? If there’s a problem with either race, we might be on the bad end of it.”

“We’re not here to get caught up in your bigotry.” Radley grabbed Caldwell and dragged him away. “The vempari don’t want to fight with anyone if they can help it. They don’t want to make that sort of mistake again.”

“What was that part about ignoring the vampire?” Caldwell had a thought about that. ‘Took’ implied that he had been eaten, but it could also mean kidnapped. What made him doubt that it was the same child was that Sarah said she had straightened it out satisfactorily. She also mentioned that it was Radley’s foster-parents that owed her a favor. It was something that he intended to ask her about when he had a chance.

Radley shrugged. “It happened during the liberation. The vampire sounds like it was a slavering beast and he was told that it would kill him if he got too close to it.”

“Do you know the boy’s name? Any better description of the vampire?” Caldwell figured that Radley might have suspected Sarah if he knew what the vampire looked like, but it was worth asking.

Radley shook his head. “He never said anything more about it.”

They came to a sprawling building and hid in some bushes that shielded it from the road. There were six children playing in the courtyard; one human girl, three vempari, and two children that Caldwell couldn’t tell what they were. Two female vempari were watching them from a bench and conversing quietly.

Caldwell frowned. “This is where Birney is staying?”

“That’s what Sarah told me,” Radley said.

“Do you think it’s wise to have vempari take care of my son?” Caldwell asked.

Radley thought for a full minute before he pointed at the woman who walked out of the house. “It should be okay with her help. Birney’s the high side of eight, right? That’s about when I had to start taking care of myself.”

“He’s nine and a half.” Caldwell frowned. “Is that Lailah?” 

It looked like someone had tried to turn Lailah into a vampire, but she was walking around in the sun and obviously pregnant. Sarah had been kind enough to give Caldwell a basic education about vampires, including the detail about how they became barren when turned. Then Catullus came out of the house and their behavior toward each other indicated that he and Lailah were a loving couple.

Caldwell’s frown deepened. “He’s not following the rules of his society. I was told that he couldn’t love someone that he couldn’t have children with.”

“Those women discarded a rule, too. And I think that is Lailah,” Radley said. “Otik thought it has something to do with how human Catullus acted when he first got to Valeholm. He could barely speak his own race’s language.”

“Where’s Birney?” Caldwell asked.

“Sarah told me that the young Guardians go elsewhere for lessons and he should be back by evening at the latest,” Radley said.

“I’ve already made up my mind about taking Birney away from this, but I want to see what else they might have done to him,” Caldwell said.

There was a scuff on the road behind them. “Today is not a good day for this, Caldwell.” They turned to see Keturah standing over them. “Birney is with his predecessor and I’m not sure when he’ll return. Would you like to meet my family, or do you want to continue skulking around?”

“The only reason I let Birney be taken in the first place was because Archimedes told me he wanted what was best for him.” Caldwell stood. “I don’t think he’s doing that.” Caldwell didn’t think that Sarah would have warned the Guardians and assumed that Keturah finding him was because of the Timestreamer.

“I understand how you feel, but I assure you that we are doing what we feel is best,” Keturah said. 

“Let me see him,” Caldwell demanded.

“That is not a good idea right now,” Keturah said. “We just discovered that we made a mistake, but we learn from them. Birney is upset, and talking to him now will repeat a mistake that Catullus’ father made. You actually remind me of him in a way. Finneas has proven that he is capable of dealing with the situation correctly. You can talk to Birney once he has calmed.”

“What happened to make Birney upset?” Caldwell asked.

“Archimedes assumed his Guardianship when he was too young; this was without the foreknowledge of the rest of the Circle, save for the Mind Guardian…” Keturah made a pained expression. “He missed out on half of his childhood and didn’t stop to think that there are some things that the children don’t need to think of yet. As far as I know, this is the first time he’s forgotten how young they are, the first time he’s actually scared them. I’ve already chastised him for it.”


	4. Chapter 4

In New Eden, Finneas was standing under a tree. Birney was lounging in the branches and had been lost in thought for half of an hour. It was not an uncomfortable silence, but rather one that was content to wait until it was broken.

“I’m scared,” Birney said.

Finneas sighed. “It’s not as bad as he made it sound. Out of everyone, I made the worst mistake in my duties and they let me stay for about a decade after that. There are other things I’ve done that you might disapprove of once you properly understand them.”

“What was the worst mistake?” Birney asked.

“I messed with the weather,” Finneas said. “I thought it would be easy, and it was, but then I realized why it was a bad idea. A storm started building, and until Kain started talking me through it, everything I did to try and stop it made things worse. Some of the others were able to use their powers to lessen the damage, but Bavol nearly died. Actually, he’s barely moved or said anything since then, so I’m not sure if you could really call that alive.”

Birney held his hand up to the breeze. “What would make someone unfit?”

“I’m not sure. Obviously you’re not going to have the same sort of problem as the Restorers. The only other time the question has come up…” Finneas frowned instead of mentioning the fuss around Archimedes. “It was an accusation without proof.”

“What was the accusation?” Birney asked.

Finneas sighed. “Mostly it was based around fear that Archimedes would be like his predecessor. I don’t imagine that you would act like Juniper, so other than a desire for you to not make changes to my territory without consulting me, I don’t care what you do.”

Birney said, “Archimedes mentioned that Bavol would be removed.”

Finneas nodded. “Bavol is a necromantic vampire, so it’s easy to do that without permanently killing him. The only reason he’s served this long was because he was adequate to the needs of his Pillar, but his unwillingness to be involved in anything else got tedious. Kain didn’t want more than four removed at once, and it seemed like even this many was a risk.”

“Archimedes sometimes has us debate over the rules you worked under, so I guess that means that we’ll get to make the rules,” Birney said.

Finneas nodded. “I think the way that we managed ourselves worked for us, but the world might change in ways where it stops being the best course to take. As a group, you’ll need to adjust things as you go.”

“I visit my father often enough that I know about his politics, and I think there’s an advantage to being flexible. He’s the Head Chancellor and his subordinates refuse to acknowledge that my younger brother is the one that’s going to inherit his title,” Birney said. “Someday I’m going to have to participate in that shambles just long enough to refuse my other birthright when they could just acknowledge the truth right now.”

Finneas had never met the Head Chancellor, but Archimedes had complained about him often enough. It made Finneas wonder if he was the type of man who needed strict rules to keep him in check. He decided to keep his thoughts to himself, if nothing else than to avoid insulting Birney. “My condolences.”

“Could you help me run away again? There’s supposed to be this big celebration on my tenth birthday to present me to the city and I don’t even want to participate in that,” Birney said. “I realize that I can’t run away from everything that I don’t like, but it’s nonsense. Sherrod is the one who deserves that attention.”

“I’ll give it some thought,” Finneas said.

Birney was not the only one being talked to by their predecessor. Because Jahangir was from the warrior caste, and already indoctrinated in the concept of dying for his duty, he and Hardegin were able to have a very frank discussion on the matter. Lorica wasn’t much help because she never gave “don’t screw up” much thought, but Keturah was able to assure Grigori that if he didn’t have anything to worry about as long as he took his duties seriously.

That left Tanyanika. Instead of letting her see Sarah, it was left to Chixiksi to reassure her.

“I think you have little to be concerned over,” Chixiksi said. “I’ve already explained how you can substitute lab safety procedures for carponus e donadi, and as long as you uphold your responsibilities, you won’t have any problem. It’s not like we’ll kill someone just for making a well-intentioned error.”

“But the two Mind Guardians that I know about were bad,” Tanyanika said.

Chixiksi frowned. “What have you been told about Sarah?”

“Archimedes just told us a little about the fight she won against Kain, and the rule that she broke. Most of what I know is that she did something terrible,” Tanyanika said. “She was obviously removed before the others. It must have been for a reason other than an inadequate connection to the Pillar.”

Chixiksi sighed as he thought. “She was removed first because the Mind Pillar refused to provide her any guidance. Even Lorica had a sense of what she was supposed to be doing despite needing tutoring, and delaying the rest of the culling was simply to consider who should go next. With that level of incompetence, I’m displeased that Archimedes convinced Sarah not to call for her own removal as soon as she knew what was wrong. Sarah made up for her failing by being careful, though it’s still amazing that what mistakes she did make had nothing to do with using the Pillar’s magic.”

Chixiksi pondered some more. “I won’t tell you what terrible thing she did, at least not yet, but I had a hand in allowing it to happen. She was preparing for her removal when… I don’t think I should go into that, either. She didn’t go through with that mistake until after her removal in case it would result in damage to the rest of the Circle.”

Tanyanika frowned. “Can you explain why she thought what she was doing might damage the Circle?”

“She didn’t know what might happen to her, but ultimately the rest of us were more affected by hearing about it than she was by doing it. I still regret that I didn’t insist on it not happening despite the vampires outvoting us,” Chixiksi said. “Do you feel better? I’m starting to talk about things that I shouldn’t.”

“Can you tell me why it happened?” Tanyanika asked. “Or maybe whether or not Sarah was a good person?”

“Try not to be concerned about that,” Chixiksi said. “She should not have been a Guardian in the first place, much less the Mind Guardian.”


	5. Chapter 5

Caldwell brushed his fingers through his hair in an attempt to look more presentable. He frowned as he straightened his borrowed jacket, feeling a bit ridiculous at how shabby it was, but he hadn’t brought a change of clothes. He wanted to get rid of the pebble, but it would be undignified to remove his shoe in front of someone and so he tried to ignore the discomfort as he followed Keturah to the house.

Catullus gazed at him quizzically. “Head Chancellor, to what do I owe the surprise?”

Caldwell decided to be diplomatic about it. “I wanted to check on Birney.”

Keturah said, “He’s talking to Finneas right now.”

Catullus smiled at Caldwell. “You must care about him very much to come all of this way.”

Caldwell glanced around at everyone else. “Is this sort of household normal?”

“It’s a bit uncommon for this many parents to live together, but conjoined households aren’t unheard of,” Catullus said. “With this many adults, it makes it easier to give all of the children the attention they need.”

“One’s obvious, but are the rest of these all yours?” Caldwell asked.

Catullus chuckled. “Only three, but with two more on the way.” He pointed out the introductions. “Ellette is obvious. Ribaki is my unrelated cousin and he is just visiting. Tavaris is Otik and Arlet’s child. Mine are Lysander by Arlet, Vianne by Bahira, and Kamilah by Lailah.”

“I thought you and Lailah couldn’t…” Caldwell stared at her.

Lailah glared back. Her eyes were yellow and her ears were pointed, just like a vampire, but when she spoke he could see that she didn’t have fangs. “There were vempari who didn’t want us to marry, and I had to…” She turned her head and scowled.

“There were risks involved with using that sort of magic,” Catullus explained. “She now has some of the essence of a vempari, and it has made our union fruitful.”

Caldwell shifted his gaze between Catullus and Lailah. “Odd that some vampires would have those traits.”

Catullus shook his head. “Our kind were the first to suffer from the bloodcurse, and passing it to humans was viewed as a necessary evil. The word vampire comes from the Hylden’s name for us. It happened so long ago that only two survived, though Ozker is the only one left, and even then they used time-travel. Every vempari that wasn’t born in this time were taken from before the curse.”

Caldwell frowned. “Was passing on the bloodthirst really necessary?”

“You’ll have to take that one up with a vampire,” Catullus said.

Just then, Finneas appeared with Birney. Keturah waved for Finneas to come to the discussion.

Caldwell frowned at the state his son was in. Birney was barefoot, dressed in tattered clothes, and there were fresh scrapes on his arms and chin.

Birney stared in surprise. “Father, what are you doing here?”

“I came to see what they were doing to you, and I’ve decided to take you home,” Caldwell said.

Birney shook his head. “I want to stay here.”

“They’re obviously not treating you properly,” Caldwell said. “Just look at the way you are dressed.”

“I have good clothes, I’m just more comfortable like this,” Birney said. “They’re being nice to me, really.”

“I can see that Lailah hates me,” Caldwell said.

“You, not me,” Birney said. “I know that she didn’t like the rules in Letestadt and I think that she should have been allowed to leave.”

Caldwell frowned. “Keturah admitted that Archimedes upset you.”

“It’s okay now, and usually it’s not like that,” Birney said. “I enjoy my lessons.”

“What are they teaching you?” Caldwell asked.

“History, debate, how to control our emotions,” Birney said. “There’s other things, but I think those are the most important.”

“I thought you were supposed to teach him sorcery,” Caldwell said. “And what’s this about learning to control emotions?”

“The point of sorcery is that they need to draw on a source,” Finneas said. “Emotional control is a foundation of being able to control his magic as it develops.”

“We will start teaching him other spells.” Keturah demonstrated by briefly pulling her spear out of her pocket dimension.

Caldwell shook his head. “Parlor tricks. You’re done with him. Birney, get dressed and gather your things. You’re coming back with me.”

“Please, this is important,” Birney said.

“I’ve made up my mind,” Caldwell said. “If nothing else, that they chose Lailah to foster you was irresponsible.”

“I am still angry about what happened, but I would not take it out on Birney,” Lailah said. “From what Catullus tells me, his own father was even worse than Warrick, but I don’t hold it against him.”

Keturah said, “We put careful consideration into this. I invite you to be my guest for a few days so that you can see that they are not treating him badly.”

“Now that you know I’m here, of course you would behave differently,” Caldwell said.

Catullus said, “Perhaps you should speak to the parents of the other young Guardians. Grigori’s parents live here, though I must warn you that they recently moved here from Carthage and haven’t gotten used to talking to humans yet.”

Caldwell shook his head. “I will not change my mind.”

Catullus sighed. “I’m sorry, Birney. It seems that he is being stubborn.”

Caldwell followed Birney into the house while Catullus and Lailah remained outside. The rest of the family had gone inside during the early parts of the argument. Keturah and Finneas departed, though the look they exchanged indicated that they weren’t giving up just yet.

Radley had been watching quietly, and he said, “I’m sorry about my part in this. Sometimes having something to hide isn’t wrong, but Sarah told me that Archimedes knew we were coming. We also ran into Jeremy, Cleavon, and Meldon on our way through town and talking to that pack of bigots couldn’t have helped. They sound like they’re getting angry enough to do something.”

“Thank you for telling me about the bigots. We are keeping an eye on them,” Catullus said. “I also overheard when Archimedes recruited you, and I would have told you that people often get hurt during his schemes, but it sounded like he would have gone after someone who wouldn’t have gotten what little warning that you did. I hope my brother knows what he’s doing.”

“I hope so, too.” Radley smirked at Catullus. “Mendel told me what you did. I hope I don’t get like that when I fall in love.”

Catullus was spared from commenting on it by Ellette running out of the house in tears, followed by Kamilah. Lailah tried to comfort the girls as Caldwell and Birney came out of the house.

Caldwell said to Radley, “I didn’t realize there wasn’t a stable here, so you’ll have to make your way back on foot.”

After Caldwell and Birney departed, Catullus told Radley, “I can teleport you back to the city. Do you want to go back immediately, or stay here for the duration it would take you to walk?”

“I think I want to see if there’s anything I can do to help.” Radley pulled a medallion out of his pocket.

To someone who knew how, the medallion could be used to call the attention of the Guardian that owned it. To disguise his true purpose, Radley had been given a token that indicated a favor owed by the Timestreamer instead of a badge of servitude to him. Catullus had similar medallions for Archimedes and Chixiksi, but not his mother or Sarah because he could call them telepathically.

Sarah appeared, and they caught her up on the situation. “Your instructions are the same as mine; don’t be an uncontrolled element. This isn’t over.”


	6. Chapter 6

Birney hated coming back to Letestadt for visits, but now that it looked like he might not be allowed to leave again, he was sullen. It didn’t help that over the week, his father had blamed the problems he was having on the Circle.

Birney was playing a game of chess against his brother Sherrod under the eye of their tutor. At least the tutor accepted that Birney wasn’t at the skill-level that would be expected at his age. He knew how to play, his predecessor just didn’t consider it a priority that he be good at it yet, and instead the young Guardians were allowed to approach the game at their own pace.

Birney frowned as he felt Tanyanika and Jahangir nearby, and he wondered what they were doing here. Each Guardian and replaced Restorer had a unique sensation, but Birney couldn’t tell all of the signatures apart yet, and the third one was someone he hadn’t spent much time around. Birney toppled his king as he stood. “Excuse me, but I think I’m done with this lesson for today.”

The tutor frowned, but for once he decided not to say anything about Birney’s behavior.

The third Guardian-signature was in his father’s office and the door was closed, so he followed the feeling of Jahangir and Tanyanika into a parlor where they were sitting with Ribaki.

“You clean up nice.” Birney wasn’t aware of Hylden fashion, but like him, they usually dressed in less formal clothes during lessons. “What are you doing here?”

“Chixiksi and my parents are trying to talk some sense into your father,” Tanyanika said.

Jahangir scowled and tugged at his tunic. He usually went shirtless unless it was chilly. “We came all this way and he decides to disregard us because of our youth.”

“I hope he didn’t realize that he was being disrespectful,” Birney said. “I’m not sure I’d be able to explain it in a way that he’ll understand.”

“How are you doing?” Ribaki asked. Because their time in Valeholm rarely overlapped, they shared a bedroom and Ribaki had seen more than anyone what state Letestadt left Birney in.

Birney sighed. “It’s worse now that my father has gotten involved in my education. My brother and I have lessons at the same time, and our tutor focuses on things that a chancellor needs to know while barely speaking about anything outside of the wall. At least the history lessons at the school in Valeholm felt relevant. That and our fencing instructor thinks I need to unlearn what Hardegin taught us.” 

Though being able to defend themselves with mundane methods was considered useful, the real reason for instructing the young Guardians in combat was a means to inspire self-discipline. Similarly, going to the local schools was more about giving them a sense of normalcy and a chance to be social with ordinary people their own age than what they were learning.

Jahangir made a face. “That is an arrogant assumption. In our warrior-hall, it is known that the master-teachers and Hardegin had things to learn from each other. I wish to test your fencing instructor.”

“Do you think you can take him down a notch?” Birney asked.

Jahangir shook his head. “Unless he is incompetent, I am likely to simply learn some things in the process of a crushing defeat.”

Birney rolled his eyes. “I’d rather have Hardegin or Keturah try to give him a proper thrashing. He won’t admit he’s not the best unless someone proves it.”

In Caldwell’s office, he sat opposite the three Hylden. He had described his concerns with Birney’s foster family, what the young Guardians were being taught, and that were things that Birney still kept hidden.

Parvaneh, Tanyanika’s mother, said, “Having magical ability is rare outside of the leader caste, and I do believe that the Circle is better-equipped to train our daughter than we are. There are also things that she will not discuss with us because it is only for Guardians to know.”

Chixiksi said, “Other than Tanyanika, I feel like I do not have much to teach the young Guardians, but I am willing to be more involved in their education if having another parent present will help ease your fears.”

Caldwell shook his head. “Archimedes has proven himself untrustworthy more than once and he is the only other human. I will not have Birney tainted by the other races any more than he has been.”

Fravardin frowned. “I would have the same concern about Tanyanika spending so much time around humans if I had not worked with one and realized that you’re nothing like I was led to expect. I believe that exposure to the other races is a positive thing, even for someone not expected to work alongside them. I’ve met Catullus and he seems like a good person.”

“Would you allow him to take care of your daughter?” Caldwell asked.

Fravardin frowned. “I do not dismiss the idea out of hand, but I would have to give it a great deal of thought.”

Chixiksi said, “Catullus has very little knowledge of Hylden culture, so I would not suggest it unless he was willing to live among Hylden. The purpose of Ribaki’s visits is so that he learns about the other half of his heritage, and I do not mind that it includes human influences, but I would not leave him with a human that did not know our ways.”

The chancellor smirked. “Even with humans, Valeholm is very different than Letestadt.”

“I do concede that, but the point is more about being able to fit in with people who share an outside appearance. Catullus does not look human, and he had trouble integrating when he was finally able to be around other vempari. I imagine that the only reason why his nonconformity didn’t cause him to be shunned by everyone was because his peers were also adjusting to a sudden change in lifestyle,” Chixiksi said. “Do not forget the reason why Birney is being fostered; the problem is that the Nature Guardian cannot tolerate this city. If you can trust someone to raise him in Aschedorf or someplace else with access to nature, it would be much better for him.”

Caldwell frowned. “Aschedorf is full of vampires.”

Chixiksi nodded. “That it is. Nadzeya has a vampire population as well, but we have learned to live with them.”

Caldwell turned to Tanyanika’s parents. “Do you approve of your child living among vampires?”

Parvaneh said, “We had to move to Uspekhi for Tanyanika’s safety. I do not know why, but her predecessor is a danger to her. I’ve worked alongside vampires and they are people.”

Caldwell pursed his lips in thought. “Sarah mentioned that she couldn’t be trusted around the children.”

Chixiksi said, “I occasionally trust Ribaki to Sarah’s care, but I also approve of being overcautious with the young Guardians. The issue with the previous Mind Guardian is something that I cannot go into.”

“Sarah also seemed to believe that being properly prepared is a matter of life and death,” Caldwell said.

“I do not share that belief, though I see where she is coming from. Only a vampire can be removed from their Guardianship without permanently dying,” Chixiksi said. “The weight of the world rests on the Pillars, and we Guardians are bound to those Pillars. If a Guardian somehow threatens the health of the Pillars, and by extension the world, then we must do whatever is necessary to remove that threat. Even a Guardian who uses their powers irresponsibly must be dealt with, but I think that we would give them every chance we could to mend their ways. It is better if we try to keep any problems from starting to develop in the first place.”

Caldwell scowled and turned to Tanyanika’s parents. “Do you agree with this?”

“It is against our ethics to allow someone to conduct a risky endeavor without proper training on how to do it safely. Since our daughter does not have a choice in assuming her role, we cannot in good conscience allow her to not be prepared for it,” Parvaneh said. “What I disagree with is how recklessly the Pillars were designed; relying on the chance that an infant would somehow become the type of person that could handle the responsibility even if their peers failed to teach it to them. I agree with every precaution that is deemed necessary, and I hope that they have the good sense for it to be adequate.”

Chixiksi held up a hand to calm her. By human standards, she just seemed slightly irritated, but he could see that Parvaneh would be bristling with rage if she were showing her true emotions. Many who didn’t reach adulthood until after they were released from their banishment were especially irate about the subject, and Chixiksi reconsidered whether it was a good idea to bring her.

Chixiksi said, “I had to endure a rant about how you were trying to change your other son’s dominant hand because of a silly superstition. Ribaki’s braces are so that he’ll be able to walk normally, but handedness seems like such a minor thing to me. I imagine that you consider being able to hide his natural tendencies is an important skill that needs to be learned early.”

“I did not realize that Sarah would be so indiscreet about it or I would have said something,” Caldwell said.

“I will relay your sentiments, but I have a sense that she would keep it from people that would embarrass you over it,” Chixiksi said.

“I am still not convinced that what you are doing is not somehow harming my son,” Caldwell said. “Does he know what you might do if he’s inadequate?”

“They have a sense of the burden that they will bear. Each one has been reassured that they are likely to be up to the task, though Birney might be greatly disturbed that you could be making it more difficult for him,” Chixiksi said. “We brought two of his peers, perhaps speaking with them will help ease your fears.”


	7. Chapter 7

Caldwell led his guests to the parlor and froze. The two Hylden children were missing, and instead Sherrod was talking to Ribaki.

“Where are the others?” Caldwell demanded. “Sherrod, why are you in here?”

“Birney wanted to take them on a tour, but Ribaki can’t walk very far so Birney asked me to entertain him,” Sherrod said. “We were talking about the corrections to our defects.”

Caldwell scowled. “Go back to your tutor, Sherrod.”

After his son had left, Caldwell said, “Birney has been insubordinate this entire week, and it seems like you can’t keep the others under control, either.”

“While it is inconvenient at the moment, it is good that they have an independent streak,” Chixiksi said. “The Circle runs as a democracy and it’s not good to be deferential when then rest of us have such forceful personalities.”

“I’ll have my porter track them down,” Caldwell said.

“I can sense the young Guardians, and it seems that they are in the courtyard,” Chixiksi said. “I would like to retrieve them myself if you don’t mind.”

Caldwell decided to lead Chixiksi to the courtyard personally. Tanyanika’s parents were left with Ribaki.

There was a commotion in the courtyard, though Birney and Tanyanika were just watching quietly from the edge. The fencing instructor was a man of sixty, and he was currently trying to hit Jahangir with a wooden sword. Jahangir was similarly armed and danced out of the way of his swings, but then he found an opening and managed to smack the man’s hip.

The man yelped in pain and redoubled his efforts. “Why you little demon!”

Chixiksi strode forward and cast a defensive shield around himself and Jahangir. “That is enough. Do not call my kind demons.”

The man ceased attacking, but eyed both Hylden warily.

Caldwell strode forward as well. “What is going on here, and why were you bested by a mere boy?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” the fencing instructor said. “He and Birney were play-fighting and I told them to stop fooling around. He said that they were being serious, but neither of them were using proper technique. Then he insulted me.”

“It was in answer to you insulting my fighting style,” Jahangir said. “That you try to pass yourself off as an instructor is criminal.”

Chixiksi barked a command, and Jahangir snapped to attention. “This is not the time to be getting into this argument.”

Caldwell told the fencing instructor, “Your claims of being the best are obviously exaggerated. I should have you put out as bait.”

“Perhaps he is the best if you’re limiting the choices to humans,” Chixiksi said. “Both as a member of the warrior caste and as the Conflict Guardian, combat is a significant part of Jahangir’s purpose in life.”

Caldwell turned to Birney, “And what do you have to say for yourself?”

“We were just sparring,” Birney said. “I needed to kick over the traces a little.”

Tanyanika grumbled in Hylden.

“What did she say?” Caldwell asked.

Chixiksi frowned. “Tanyanika has similar concerns about Birney’s academics instructor.”

“I have judged his credentials myself,” Caldwell said.

Chixiksi gave a slight nod. “I’m sure that you find him adequate. Tanyanika and Grigori still take classes with ordinary people in between their lessons with the Circle.”

“I liked the school in Valeholm,” Birney said. “Please don’t make me stay here. It feels hard to breathe.”

Caldwell turned to Tanyanika. “What do you think about what the Circle is teaching you?”

“We are taught to argue like leader caste, and I see the value in it even though I dislike it. I enjoy hearing about the Guardians before us, though enjoy might be the wrong word for the terrible ones. There are also…” Tanyanika paused before using the Hylden word. “Some lessons are unclear and I have yet to decipher their meaning.”

“The word she used translates as riddle, but leading someone to come to understanding through their own thought is an effective teaching method,” Chixiksi said.

Caldwell considered the girl. “Are they doing anything to harm you?”

“He’s aware that Archimedes scared you,” Chixiksi supplied. “You two have already embarrassed me, but don’t be afraid to speak up about any other things that may be viewed as problematic.”

“I’m fine now,” Tanyanika turned to the others, and they both nodded. Then she asked, “Carponus e donadi?”

“It’s a vempari philosophy about responsibility,” Chixiksi said. “While it’s good that the children are aware of it, there are other approaches that are just as valid. I’ve spoken with Tanyanika about it already, but I think I should personally make sure that they all know that following it is not a requirement.”

Jahangir said in Hylden, “I will not happily be a pincushion.”

“Catullus talked to me about that,” Birney said. “I’m worried about Grigori.”

“I will bring this up with Keturah,” Chixiksi said. “I admit that we’re not perfect, Caldwell, and that is why we’re not so arrogant as to refuse outside input. Part of the reason why Tanyanika’s parents put so much trust is me is because we are from the same caste, and even they question me on occasion. We are willing to listen if you think that there is something we are not doing that we should be. You should also listen to Birney’s desires.”

“Unless you have anything more to say on the matter, I think it is time for you to go,” Caldwell said. “I will discuss this with Birney in private, including that vempari philosophy.”

Later, Caldwell and Birney were sitting in his office.

Caldwell leaned forward in his chair. “Please try to tell me as much as you can. I’m getting conflicting information and I’m beginning to understand that maybe there are things that I’m not meant to know, but I want to do what’s best for you. What is the vempari philosophy that they were talking about?”

“Keturah and Archimedes follow carponus e donadi, but Catullus said that it might not be good for ordinary people, and that it might not be good for humans, either,” Birney hesitated. “He says that Archimedes once overtaxed his powers and had to be forced to rest. There are other examples, but even sharing that one was probably a secret I shouldn’t have told.”

Caldwell frowned. “Why did they try to teach that philosophy to you?”

“Catullus said that they don’t believe it can be a bad thing and that he can’t seem to convince them of it,” Birney said. At his father’s prompting, he explained carponus e donadi in full.

Caldwell laced his fingers and was lost in thought for a moment. “There are times when I have to put my personal feelings aside for the good of this city. I need to think about this.”


	8. Chapter 8

Caldwell stared gloomily out the window at the pouring rain. He had used a medallion to call Archimedes’ attention, but he didn’t expect his servant to arrive soon due to the weather. He startled when Sarah suddenly appeared in his office.

Sarah said, “I apologize for breaking protocol, but Archimedes was willing to teleport me so I wouldn’t have to get wet.”

Caldwell narrowed his eyes. “He could have me assassinated in my sleep, couldn’t he?”

“There are rules against that sort of thing,” Sarah said.

Caldwell explained what he had learned. “If nothing else, leaving the city has broadened my sense of the world. Are you still certain that Birney being prepared is a matter of life and death?”

“Things change,” Sarah said. “When Archimedes was too young to be turned, adhering to carponus e donadi saved his life. His predecessor had led the revolt to prevent the human Guardians from being turned into vampires, and then the Circle failed in its duties. It is still his burden, and now Birney’s, to prove that humans can adequately serve the Pillars, and proper guidance will help guarantee it.” 

“What was that part about having to prove that humans are fit to serve?” Caldwell asked. “Are they at risk of being turned into vampires?”

“When the original Guardians fell, vempari were cursed and no longer being born. The Pillars chose humans for lack of other options. While believing that vempari have a spark of the divine is an arrogant assumption, they do have advantages that get passed on along with the curse,” Sarah said. “It is hard to say what problems were caused simply because the Guardians were human, and which were caused by not educating them properly. I’ve managed to muddy the waters further by retaining much of my humanity and inspiring others to think about what it really means to be a vampire.”

“What about the process that Lailah went through?” Caldwell asked. “Is it that risky?”

Sarah frowned. “She was a vampire, briefly. Those from Kain’s lineage are dead and cannot be cured, but there are still a few vampires around who could pass on the original curse. There are even fewer who have volunteered to be cured, so we do not know how reliable it is.”

“How many?” Caldwell asked, and Sarah held up one tridactyl hand. Caldwell frowned as he digested this information. “Do you believe that the vempari philosophy is a good thing?”

“With moderation,” Sarah said. “Archimedes has been told many times to be a little more selfish, to take care of himself better. I was unaware that he overtaxed his powers. Keturah has just begun to acknowledge the danger of being too devoted to duty. Not being able to intervene with Catullus’ problems hurt her, and she’s willing to let the young Guardians think about themselves a bit more. I do believe that having Catullus involved is a good thing because he looks at carponus e donadi in a critical way.”

“You’re aware that you’re not making a good case for letting them take Birney away again,” Caldwell said.

“The Circle understands Birney’s needs better than you do. Archimedes’ mother gave him up willingly, and I think that the way he was raised worked for him, but they will do better this time,” Sarah said. “They probably could simply take Birney; the results were catastrophic last time more because of the way they treated the children. However, I think it’s important that you two be able to see each other enough to show Birney that you care for him.”

“You once accused me of having an agenda,” Caldwell said.

“I acknowledged that you could genuinely love Birney while still using him. If all goes well, he’s going to be the Nature Guardian for centuries, and your goals might be a bit short-sighted,” Sarah said. “I would like to address another complaint you made about the danger from the other races and Sherrod being interested in talking to Ribaki. Hybrids like Ribaki are traditionally called on to be mediators if they have an aptitude for it and having a ally like that might be beneficial. I think that you should extend an invitation for him to visit some more, though I would not condone forcing them together if they cannot form or maintain a healthy friendship.”

Caldwell narrowed his eyes. “What could Ribaki possibly offer?”

“Hard to say. If nothing else, he might be able to offer advice on dealing with the Hylden leadership if isolationism stops working for you,” Sarah said. “I wonder what you could offer in exchange for the marvels of Hylden technology. For one thing, they know how to make barriers that mortals can pass through, but vampires cannot.”

Caldwell considered. “Would Chixiksi go along with this?”

“Possibly. Chixiksi would not be amused if it were simply for an agenda, so I suggest not telling Sherrod so that his intentions remain pure,” Sarah said.

“You’re more devious than I suspected,” Caldwell said.

“Are you aware that court jesters used to be more than mere buffoons?” Sarah asked. “Being of low status means there is nothing to personally gain, which means that they could be trusted as advisors. My motivations are altruistic, but a leader must be motivated by the needs of his people and I respect that. I am arguing from this perspective because I have a feeling that it would draw your attention.”

“It has,” Caldwell said. “Do you truly have nothing to gain from this advice?”

“Anything I can do to lesson the chances of another interracial war from breaking out also reduces the chances that I see another interracial war breaking out,” Sarah said. “My advice concerning Birney is that making him into a mentally healthy individual with a strong sense of responsibility to the world will help to ensure that the world will be a place worth living in.”

Caldwell pondered. “One could say that if everyone benefits, then so do you.”

“Do you think that is wrong?” Sarah asked. “I also enjoy seeing other people happy even if I have nothing else to gain from it.”

“It’s a very immature viewpoint, which makes you more suitable to be a servant than a leader,” Caldwell said. “Still, your guileless declaration of your motivations does make me believe that at least once you were a fool who could be trusted to speak truthfully to power.”

Sarah nodded. “That I believe you do want what’s best for Birney means that you are on the same side as my master, we just have to come to a resolution about what that means.”

Caldwell’s response was interrupted by a pounding on his office door. A man burst in without waiting for an invitation. “Head Chancellor, Delbert collapsed and it seemed like he had died. We called a healer to examine him, but he… he’s gotten up again and he’s violent. We’re having trouble keeping the door shut.”

Sarah said, “Take me to him. Call for men and shackles.”


	9. Chapter 9

Sarah was braced shoulderblades to the door while she listened to frantic descriptions of what was currently trying to get out of the room. “If it’s what I think it is, I do not want to deal with it. It’s possible to start the process of turning a person into a vampire while they’re alive and it doesn’t take effect until they die. No one looks like a vampire immediately. The problem with doing it this way is that the fledglings are wicked-strong because they don’t have a chance to rot.”

“If you’re not willing to deal with it, what are we supposed to do?” Caldwell asked.

“I said I didn’t want to,” Sarah said. “I told my grandsire over our bloodbond and he doesn’t care. There is someone else I can call for backup, but this is my problem.”

Just then, Ozker and Hardegin appeared in the hallway. Sarah smiled and said, “Awesome. What I want you two to do is stand by and be ready to stake him if he gets through me. I think you know what to do if I’m severely injured in the process.”

Caldwell frowned. “What if Delbert gets through them? My own men would become legitimate prey if they struck first, wouldn’t they?”

Hardegin turned to Caldwell’s gathered men. “If she can’t stop that fledgling, don’t wait for him to hurt anyone else. This is a situation that calls for bending the rules. Sarah gets the responsibility even if it’s someone else that actually drives the spear in.”

“Am I correct in my assumption about what you are going to do?” Ozker called a bottle of bloodwine out of his pocket dimension. “Finneas keeps foisting these on me.”

“I’m going to let him feed from me and hope that calms him down. Thanks for this.” Sarah accepted the bottle and swiftly downed it. She made a face. “I don’t see what he hopes to accomplish with bad Argast.”

Caldwell’s men were positioned at both ends of the hall, Ozker with one group and Hardegin with the other. Then Sarah stopped bracing the door and turned to confront the creature that was pounding at it. It leapt at her, and she managed to catch its claws, but it clumsily sunk its fangs into her neck. The momentum knocked Sarah down, and for a moment she just lay there while the fledgling fed.

Delbert did calm as he was sated, and then he suddenly withdrew. “Oh no. I didn’t want to think it was possible.”

Sarah kept her grasp on one of his wrists while she shakily sat up. “You had an idea that this might happen?”

Delbert nodded slightly. “When I was in my twenties, a vampire bragged about using me for a trap. He and the other one left me dying where the other hunters would find me, but they managed to keep me alive and I found a safer line of work.”

“Idiot, you could have hurt someone.” Sarah turned to Ozker. “Can you get us both out of here?”

Once they had disappeared, Caldwell scowled and turned to the remaining vampire. “Is there a way to tell if there’s anyone else like that in the city?”

“I would have to speak with a necromantic vampire.” He held out a talon. “My name is Hardegin. I am the former Conflict Guardian.”

Caldwell shook his hand. “Sarah just told me that there is a cure for vampires that aren’t from Kain’s bloodline.”

“Despite my appearance, I am mortal now,” Hardegin said. “I am glad that Sarah managed to get that fledgling under control herself.”

Caldwell invited Hardegin to his office to continue the conversation and poured a drink for each of them. “I needed to find Sherrod a new fencing instructor anyway. Your successor managed to prove that Delbert couldn’t live up to his claims.”

Hardegin took a sip as he considered. “I heard about that, though Jahangir admits that the fight was a challenge, and his biggest criticism was of the man’s attitude. There is always someone better, or at least someone who can win if they are lucky or hard to predict. I’m sure that I will keep meeting people who have a chance to beat me. I don’t have the time for another student, but I might be able to help find Sherrod a better instructor if you like.”

Caldwell nodded his thanks. “Before we were interrupted, Sarah and I were about to discuss what we felt was best for Birney. I would have asked for your input sooner if I had known you were human again.”

“What I am now is a matter of debate,” Hardegin said. “I was more monstrous as a man than I was as a vampire, though after nearly a decade, it seems that I have not returned to what I was before.”

Caldwell gazed at him levelly. “Were you ever a father?”

“He was an infant when I was turned. Even then, he would have been raised as a soldier, as I was. I do not know what happened to him,” Hardegin said. “Keturah had a similar upbringing, and I believe that it is the right thing for Jahangir, but I realize that it is not the right thing for Birney.”

“What do you think is the right thing?” Caldwell asked.

Hardegin stared thoughtfully into his glass. “He is inquisitive and loves discussions, but I think he also needs the freedom to discover what else he needs on his own.”

“It seems that you are concerned for his welfare.” Caldwell frowned into his own glass. “I think that if Birney truly wants it, I will let him return to Valeholm, but with caregivers that I choose.”

Hardegin nodded. “That seems reasonable.”

Before housing arrangements could be made in Valeholm, Birney had another lesson in New Eden. He stretched his arms to the sky and said, “It’s nice to be back where I can breathe again.”

“The aroma in Letestadt is certainly assertive,” Jahangir said. Tanyanika scoffed at him.

Birney chuckled. “It wasn’t that. When I visited Bavol, Nadzeya felt tight, too.”

Grigori frowned. “I would have liked to see the other cities.”

Tanyanika said, “And I’d like to see Valeholm someday.”

Birney shrugged. "Maybe we'll take a tour once we're all confirmed."


	10. The Whim of Fortuna

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ran into a block, and something had always felt "off" about this story, so there's an in-universe retcon involving time-magic. I'm just leaving this up for posterity even though you should jump straight to the "Time wedgie" story when it goes up.

It was nearly seventeen years since Sarah was removed from her Guardianship, and she was in Letestadt as a servant of the Circle. With the conclusion of her business, she was being escorted out of the city. Since she was posing as simply an outcast Razielim, they did not know that she had some powers associated with classical vampires, which meant that she had to be out of sight before teleporting.

They had to walk past a shrine to Fortuna, and there was a commotion. A young girl, possibly seven, was being roughly handled by an angry man. There were a few other people, but they simply watched.

Sarah frowned and asked, “What’s going on?”

“She’s an offering thief,” one of the bystanders said. He turned and startled when he noticed that Sarah was a vampire.

“Let her go, Fortuna doesn’t mind,” Sarah said.

“What do you know about Fortuna?” the man growled.

Sarah quirked her head. “I know that she doesn’t care about the offerings. She’s capricious and dispenses good and bad luck at random. That’s what the blindfold symbolizes.”

The man frowned in confusion. “She can still see us.” Sarah read his thoughts enough to know that he had no idea why the Lady was blindfolded. He also thought that the apples were to mollify her until the ball was found.

Sarah reached up to the statue and sliced through the blindfold, it was her favorite shade of blue, revealing the statue’s unpainted eyes. Sarah ignored the gasps. “Look at this, little lady. They let orphans starve while providing you with a banquet that you don’t even care about. Do you think that’s funny?”

“Do not bring the Lady’s wrath down on us,” a woman said.

“Having something like her throwing a temper tantrum is a scary thought, but it’s better than having to live your lives trying to placate a spoiled brat that can’t be bribed.” Sarah placed a foot against the shrine and pushed, causing it to topple.

Her escorts brought their spears down. “You’re under arrest.”

Head Chancellor Caldwell led Kain to Sarah’s cell. “Your servant caused quite the commotion.”

“She’s been known to do that,” Kain said. “She had assured us that she would be more mindful of her actions, but I suppose that we expected too much from her. This was not condoned by any of us.”

When Sarah heard Kain approaching, she stood and approached the bars. She had removed and folded her servant’s tabard, and she wordlessly offered it to him.

Kain took the cloth. “What were you thinking?”

Sarah shook her head. “The religion is getting out of hand. Something had to be done.”

“The Circle cannot save you from your idiocy.” Kain turned to Caldwell. “If she were human, what would the punishment be?”

“We do not have a rule for what she did,” Caldwell said. “The penalty should be death.”

“We’re willing to allow you to handle her justice,” Kain said. “I’ll even attend the execution. It’s been a while since I’ve had live prey and the executioner should make a fine meal.”

Caldwell frowned at Kain. “You would still hold to that?”

“She has not illegally killed a person,” Kain said. “I’m aware that you try to bait vampires into breaking the law, and I will not have that extended to whatever legal loopholes you create.”

Caldwell crossed his arms. “Bait it is, then.”

“I want to provide witnesses, vampires that can be trusted to follow orders,” Kain said. “Other than that, this should be interesting.”

Hema was closest, and she snorted as Kain tried to hand her Sarah’s servant tabard.

Kain chuckled. “You’ve survived her presence before. Wearing something that smells like her until a black-ribboner gets here won’t hurt you.”

Hema flattened her ears as she snatched the tabard.

A cage was erected in the main courtyard of Letestadt, and Sarah was put inside. Then the offering thief that had inspired her outburst was thrown in as well.

The Head Chancellor gave a speech explaining what was happening, ending with, “Whoever helps either of them is not only risking the wrath of Fortuna, but punishment under the law as well.”

“This is cold, Chancellor,” Sarah said. “Do you have any idea how long I can go without blood? Look at her and tell me that you would make a child suffer over a bit of food that no one else intended to eat.”

The Chancellor merely turned away and left.

Sarah sat on the floor of the cage, on the opposite side from the girl. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess. I don’t even know what would have happened to you, but it has to have been better than this.”

The girl tried to wipe away her tears. “They would have beaten me and then left me to the whim of Fortuna.”

“I’ve run into an offering thief before. His luck was pretty decent after that. My name is Sarah, what’s yours?”

“Anice.”

A few hours passed. The crowd had thinned, but there were still enough people milling around to still call it at least a throng.

“I’m thirsty,” Anice said.

Sarah turned to the guard. “How about getting her some water?”

“No help,” the guard said.

Sarah stood up and yelled, “She will die of thirst long before I am even tempted if you do not at least bring her water!” She turned to a random person in the crowd. “You. The well is right over there.” But the woman shook her head.

Sarah looked across the courtyard and met Radley’s gaze. She had noticed him there a while ago, but this was the first acknowledgement of it that she gave. He stared for a moment, nodded grimly, and then left.

More hours passed. The sun set, bringing with it a chill wind. Anice shivered.

Sarah said, “I’m not much warmer than the air, but I can try to shield you from the wind.” Anice walked across the cage and Sarah helped her to get comfortable before pulling a wing around the child.

“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” Anice asked.

Sarah sighed. “I haven’t given up hope of a miracle, but it’s looking like that’s what it will be if you survive this.”

Anice sniffled. “Orphans don’t have hope.”


	11. Chapter 11

Despite how sleeping at night was unnatural for a vampire, having to hold still allowed Sarah to slip into a torpor. She was rudely awakened by someone poking the butt of a spear into her wing. She grabbed it and hissed with bared fangs. Anice whimpered as she crawled away in fright. The guard sneered as he tried to pull his spear back, and Sarah came to herself enough to release it.

“I told you that she hadn’t killed the girl in the night,” another guard said.

The rude one scowled. “Stay apart. We want to be able to tell the moment you kill her.”

“Not going to happen,” Sarah said.

The day wore on. People came and went, interested to see if the vampire was showing any signs of succumbing to base instincts.

Anice stood against the bars of the cage and began whimpering. “Please. I’m so thirsty. Help me.”

Sarah scanned the crowd. She was beginning to see that some were uncomfortable. She picked out a woman with a particularly pained expression. “You there. Get Caldwell and demand that he see this.”

An hour passed with no sign of the Head Chancellor. Anice ran out of energy to beg and sunk to the floor of the cage. Sarah scanned the crowd again. Some of them looked sick. She sat down on the floor of the cage, gazed at Anice, and tried to think of how to push the crowd harder. Then she found the answer and began singing [One More Light](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKOPF6XtEZw). Sarah wasn’t a gifted singer, but she managed to keep her voice steady.

When she was finished, the crowd murmured, but the effect dissipated without any cries of rage sounding.

As the sun sunk toward the horizon, Anice’s breathing became unsteady. Sarah forced herself to listen, to feel the full effect of her actions. Then she heard a few voices yelling. Sarah looked up to see vempari flying, some of them dangling humans from their talons. The flock landed in front of the cage.

A few vempari yelled at the crowd about what was happening, and then one began speaking about the vempari’s history with the Elder Fraud.

Catullus had been carrying Radley, and they came straight to the cage. “Is she still alive?”

“Barely,” Sarah said.

Caldwell chose that moment to arrive. “What is the meaning of this?”

“This is wrong and we cannot ignore it,” Catullus said.

“Is Valeholm declaring war?” Caldwell asked.

“We are here without the consent of our leaders, though it would not be the first time we went to war over religion,” Catullus said. “Give us the child.”

“We cannot risk the wrath of Fortuna,” Caldwell said.

Catullus pulled a Hylden trail-ration out of his pocket dimension. “If I feed her, I own her? You’ll let me decide her fate?”

“We’ll let her out, and then you’ll go into the cage. She’d just be an orphan again.” Caldwell said. “You’re an adult, so no one can do the same for you. If you want this rule to apply to you, you have to follow the rest while in these walls, Catullus from Aschedorf.”

“I will name someone else that will be her parent if I die. Though rules or no, my mother would take exception to letting me be treated like you’ve treated this child,” Catullus said.

Radley snatched the ration from Catullus, broke off a piece, and tried to get Anice to wake up. Her eyes opened and she whimpered, but she didn’t look at him or open her mouth when Radley pushed the food to her lips. He used a finger to part her lips and tucked it into Anice’s cheek. “She’s yours, Catullus. I’ve already done things to try and help her.”

Catullus grabbed Anice through the bars and teleported away. Radley was thrown into the cage. The vempari were still lecturing the growing crowd, and there weren’t any laws forbidding being non-violently rowdy, so the guards could barely try to harass them into going away.

“Sorry it took so long,” Radley said as he sat down on the floor of the cage. “First I tried reasoning with the chancellors and I got fired. Then I rode as hard as I could to Valeholm and the horse died right as I got there.”

Sarah sat as well. “Hopefully it wasn’t too late. Her name is Anice.”

“You’re not mad that I threw away the gift you gave me?” Radley asked. “Extra years and happiness. Archimedes told me that I was supposed to die in a ditch years ago.”

“Mixed feelings, but the gift belonged to you. Trying to pass it to another is your right, as is becoming a martyr. I get irritated about people choosing to become martyrs,” Sarah said. “I didn’t expect them to want to kill me over a bit of outrage, but maybe I should have, considering the subconscious inspiration for it. I’m not going to go down easily. Unless they start feeding you, you’ll probably be dead before I get more than a little tempted.”

Radley still had the ration-bar in his hand, so he took a bite. “A little unpleasant for a last meal, assuming this is really food, but I’ve had worse. Archimedes said that you break Destinies, but maybe mine was really sturdy. I was supposed to starve or freeze, and now I will die of thirst.”

“I know of only one Destiny that was too powerful for me to stop,” Sarah said. “Much of what people attribute to destiny or luck is just seeing patterns in random things. I wish there were some pebbles around here so I could show you.” She looked around the courtyard. “Of course, the stars are coming out. Look.”

“Stars are random?” Radley asked.

“As random as thrown pebbles. More so because there was no will behind it, it just happened,” Sarah said.

Radley frowned. “Scattered without being thrown.”

“Like leaves falling on a pond,” Sarah said. “Unless there’s something like the squid that wants to take credit for doing that.”

“Some people believe that Fortuna made them,” Radley said.

Sarah shrugged. “Rather than debate about it, I want you to really look and tell me what you see.”

Radley gazed at the sky. “Like bits of glass from a dropped bottle. Except for that part. It looks like a bird.”

“The vempari call it ‘the one who flew too high’ but that’s the sort of thing I want you to look for,” Sarah said.

Radley pointed out several more constellations, Sarah naming each one. Radley stopped and said, “So it sounds like someone put them there.”

Sarah shook her head. “You’d be able to do the same thing if I did have a handful of pebbles. Humans recognize patterns. I don’t know what animals think about, but they probably do it too.”

“So what are you trying to get at?” Radley asked.

“It’s just weird that you managed to get yourself back into a similar situation to the one I saved you from,” Sarah said. “Sorry, but I’m not going to snap your neck just to be contrary.”

Radley frowned, but he couldn’t figure out how to respond to that.


	12. Chapter 12

There were cries of “Curfew! Curfew! Anyone without important business on the street needs to go home! That means you too, vempari!”

“Darnit,” Radley said. “There goes the forces of being properly outraged.”

“Just as well that they’re going before it causes a riot,” Sarah said. “Do you think people will be allowed back in the courtyard in the morning?”

“Probably,” Radley said. “It’s a bit pointless to keep us out here if no one can watch you savage me to death.”

Sarah pointed to a sheltered place on the wall. “Vampire witness to make sure they don’t illegally kill me.”

“It still could have been done quietly,” Radley said. “At least I won’t die in obscurity.”

“Are you willing to tell everyone your story, starting with stealing offerings? Leave out the part where I made you put the food back,” Sarah said.

“Why?” Radley asked.

“You were an offering thief that then got lucky,” Sarah said. “Back when I wasn’t even sure if Fortuna existed, I attributed it to mercifully getting rid of you, but now I know that she just does whatever she feels like at the time. She’s like a child.”

Radley frowned as he considered a thought. “Offering thieves don’t get lucky very often. Lately most of them get beaten.”

“Lately?” Sarah asked. “What changed?”

“I don’t know,” Radley said. “It’s not like I can ask them.”

“Because you’re not one of them anymore,” Sarah said. “You look like someone who would take a stick to them if you caught one.”

“Pretty much,” Radley said.

Sarah tried to stifle her laughter. “You might have a more accurate picture if you had bribed one to act as your lost point of view.”

“Of course. How can I forget how many times I got away without being seen?” Radley smacked himself in the head. “I was just wondering if Fortuna had a soft spot for children.”

Sarah considered. “I don’t know. Seeing children getting hurt pushes my berserk button, so naturally they get whatever help I can provide. I’m unaware of children who weren’t lucky enough for me to notice them. Though with Anice…” She reached out with her mind. “She’ll pull through.”

“How do you know?” Radley asked.

“Now that Catullus knows what’s going on, I figured that it was safe to contact him,” Sarah said.

“Caldwell is trying to bait you so he can kill you. Why didn’t you call for help yourself?” Radley asked.

“What did Catullus decide to do?” Sarah asked. “Why did you come back instead of staying in Valeholm?”

“Caldwell might not have let a vempari have Anice, especially not Catullus after what he did to Warrick. It’s a good thing I was here. Caldwell doesn’t back down even against a Guardian, though I’m unclear on the Circle not being allowed to get involved,” Radley said. “I see why you didn’t want to tell Catullus. If nothing else, his mother was furious. She only conceded to help because I told the whole village and got the invasion force worked up myself.”

“The Circle can’t get involved in the internal affairs of governments. What Archimedes does sometimes really bends those rules, but giving advice that can be ignored is allowed. Depending on what Keturah did, she might not be in trouble,” Sarah said.

“Teleporting us a few minutes’ flight from the walls, but also telling me that Anice was still alive when I got to Valeholm,” Radley said. “Wait, can’t you teleport? You were able to do it for me.”

“I could have. I still could if I were willing to face the consequences.” Sarah sighed. “I overestimated these people. I was hoping that they had enough decency to realize that they were watching a child die. By the time I realized that they would just stand and watch… it would just cement their attitude if I let them know that it was a trick.”

“Then Anice almost dying…” Radley frowned.

“I am a monster that was letting it happen. Go ahead and hate me for it,” Sarah said. “Knowing what I do now, even that she would survive, I might have given up instead of putting it into your hands. She suffered, and now you are going to suffer.”

“Why are you doing this?” Radley asked.

“When it started, I just wanted them to realize that being afraid of Fortuna is silly. She’s as unappeasable as death, though not worthy of so much fear. Wouldn’t it be nice if orphans could openly take her offerings?” Sarah tapped her talon as she thought. “Now… I’m not sure what I’m doing. Placing myself at the mercy of Fortuna is different for me because I’m her favorite plaything and she will protect me for as long as she finds it amusing to do so. But maybe I’m just being stubborn because that idiot Caldwell pissed me off.”

“No one likes Caldwell, at least not people who have gotten on his bad side,” Radley said. “If there was a way for me to survive this, I’d be happy to help annoy him.”

“I don’t want to give you false hope,” Sarah said.

It was time for the guards to change shifts. One of the relief said, “Caldwell has the next one lined up. Someone from Aschedorf tripped a guard who was chasing an offering thief.”

“Can he do that?” a guard asked. Tripping a guard wasn’t punishable by death, and even outright attacking one wasn’t fatal unless the assailant couldn’t be subdued any other way. In addition, humans from other cities were shown leniency when they broke laws that didn’t exist in their hometowns.

“Anything to avert Fortuna’s wrath,” the relief said.

Sarah said, “Good, it wasn’t Meldon.”

“That bigot stayed behind,” Radley said.

“He’s not a bigot, he’s a spy, and I just commended him on not blowing his cover,” Sarah said. “Well, I prefer to think of him as an early warning in case things stop being peaceful in Valeholm.”

“A human perspective,” Radley said.

“Someone who walks among them, trusted enough to know things that they would keep hidden from people like you,” Sarah said.

“Does the Circle have secret agents everywhere?” Radley asked.

“You two are the only ones I know about,” Sarah said. “I was openly a servant, but I’ve had to do some things that don’t quite fit the job description. You could say that I’m a secret agent under the guise of being a regular agent.”

“Is this part of a plot by the Circle?” Radley asked.

Sarah shook her head. “This is just me. Chixiksi can’t do anything, Kain won’t, Keturah came close to overstepping her bounds already, and that leaves Archimedes. He might be able to do a little to help me, but my nature blinds him. Everyone else is too young to assume their Guardianship. I don’t know anyone who can help. Hopefully the vampires I know have been ordered not to try, so that leaves me with allies I haven’t met.”

“Are you always this optimistic?” Radley asked.


	13. Chapter 13

The next morning saw the usual amount of people milling around.

Radley woke up and stretched. “I’ve gotten too used to sleeping in a proper bed.”

Then four guards escorted a frail-looking Hylden into the courtyard. He was stopped several meters from the cage, and he announced, “The child is alive and will recover to full health.”

Sarah gave the Hylden gesture for ‘thank you’ and the Hylden was escorted back out of the city.

The crowd began to build, but the vempari didn’t come back.

“I figured that we would lose the support of Valeholm,” Sarah said.

“I see a few familiar faces from there,” Radley said.

“Those sneaky devils,” Sarah said. “Have the humans slip away and blend in while everyone else is worried about the vempari.”

“I’m not a politician, but I’ve picked up a few tricks, though we didn’t have a plan beyond that.” Radley smiled. “A few of them even know about my old haunts, but I didn’t think about trying to recruit orphans and the invasion might have a problem getting ahold of food since they don’t usually carry money.”

“If Valeholm wasn’t so far away, tempting orphans to try and get there would be a good thing. Maybe if there was…” Sarah tried to think of a local replacement for underground railroad. “If we could set up some sort of system to help them survive the journey, it would be better than what they face here, right?”

“We’re stuck in a cage,” Radley said.

“I’ve already sent a message to someone who can try to do something about it,” Sarah said.

“Then I’ll tempt them,” Radley said. “Not many would try it because of the vampires outside the walls, despite the truce. But once it’s safe, someone can start telling them how to save themselves.”

“I wish I’d had the idea before getting into this mess,” Sarah said. “I would have left this city to its stupidity if it wasn’t hurting children.”

“Something about berserk? I think you do care. You risked Anice for everyone else,” Radley said. 

"I almost let her die without mentioning that there was another option, so don't think of my actions as noble,“ Sarah said. 

“Archimedes once asked me if I would poison someone for the greater good," Radley said. "I said that it depended on who it was, and he dropped the subject.” 

"Depending on how long ago that was… Several years ago, he asked me if I would murder Caldwell for him. Fortunately, he can’t expect me to follow evil orders and I hope he was just blowing off steam,” Sarah said. “You know about Birney.”

“Enough details to get the picture.” Radley said. “Archimedes told me that being the Time Guardian means that he can’t follow normal people ethics.”

“That doesn’t mean that he can just do what he wants. He has rules, some of them painful,” Sarah said. “Something like killing Caldwell would require convincing the rest of the Circle that Caldwell’s life was threatening the integrity of the Pillars, and he did use the word murder instead of assassinate when asking me. I would have to be convinced that there was no other way if he wanted me to assassinate someone.”

“What if what you’re doing here leads to Caldwell’s death?” Radley asked.

“It won’t be my hand that kills him,” Sarah said. “I will have to answer for it, just not as legitimate prey of Letestadt.”

“You said something about not liking willing martyrs,” Radley said.

“The choice irritates me,” Sarah said. “Liking the person who makes it is regardless of that. I wish Catullus would calm down, but he’s just not built that way. He sees something wrong and wants to dive right in.”

“I wonder where he gets it from,” Radley remarked dryly. “I’ve been trying to think of what I want to say when I tell my story. After meeting you, my life has had its ups and downs, but maybe I shouldn’t mention the downs.”

“Don’t make it sound idyllic. Just try to cast a positive spin on what did go wrong. The horse didn’t die until you got where you were going,” Sarah said. “You’re in this cage because you chose to trade your life for Anice, and now she’s the lucky one.”

“Actually, considering how the vempari view religion, perhaps it’s a good thing that I didn’t seem that lucky,” Radley said. “They might have feared me if they thought I had brought Fortuna with me.”

“I think that might work,” Sarah said. “If Fortuna was like the squid, these people would be in actual danger.”

“One question. What were you doing in that alley?” Radley asked.

“I wanted to see the shrine,” Sarah said. “Frame it as curiosity instead of wondering if Fortuna was a threat.”

The high-tide of the crowd happened in the afternoon, so that’s when Radley decided to speak.

Everyone listen. I want to tell you why I decided to trade my life for Anice’s. Years ago, I was an orphan like her, and hungry enough to steal offerings from Fortuna’s shrines. One evening, I was seen stealing, and I ran into an alleyway to avoid getting beaten. This vampire was standing there, curious about the shrine, and I ran right into her. She brought me to Valeholm, and gave me to a family whose son had been taken by a vampire. They raised me like their own.

My luck was somewhat normal while living in Valeholm. The vempari used to worship a malevolent entity posing as a god, and they might have treated me with something other than pity if Fortuna still had her hand on me. They’re good people, and wouldn’t let an orphan starve. I know many in Valeholm that didn’t have parents, and there are people whose job is to take care of them.

I came back here because I wanted to learn about Fortuna. I was taking notes, Chancellor Meldon saw, and he decided he wanted me as clerk. I would not have gotten an education here, assuming I survived at all. After my luck changed, mine was a good life, but now Anice has a chance to have what I did. I just couldn’t stand by and watch her die. Now I’m going to die of thirst in a futile attempt to bait a vampire. Sarah’s nice, and you’re going to see a lot more wasted lives if this continues.

Radley stared at the crowd, and then a voice shouted, “It sounds like he got lucky.” He recognized her from Valeholm.

The crowd began to murmur about an offering thief being favored. Then an older man started shouting, “Let him go! He’s received the blessing of Fortuna! We might anger her if we don’t let him go!”

Sarah stood and shouted, “I tried to tell you that Fortuna doesn’t mind orphans taking her offerings.”


	14. Chapter 14

The crowd was working into an uproar when Caldwell came. “Calm down! Fortuna can have him!”

The guards hesitated. “How do we keep the vampire from getting out?”

Sarah walked to the side of the cage opposite the door. “I promise not to do anything reckless, but you can manacle me to the bars if you want.”

Radley was let out, and a new person was put into the cage. Radley knew who it was. “What crime did he commit to deserve this?”

“He helped an offering thief,” Caldwell said.

Radley nodded and turned to the crowd. “This is Wesley of Valeholm. In his town, the punishment for helping a thief escape is a stern talking-to. Legally, he should be shown leniency, or equal to a citizen, just face a portion of the thief’s punishment… which should mean just being hit a few times. He does not deserve a slow and painful death. Killing either of these people might not be what Fortuna wants.”

“This vampire knocked over a shrine. However, I will find bait that has nothing to do with Fortuna,” Caldwell said. “Are there any more rabble-rousers from Valeholm here?” Radley answered by refusing to answer, so Caldwell said, “Any citizen of Valeholm is no longer welcome here. Like the vempari, you will be shot if you trespass.”

Just then, a dozen children rushed to the cage. They carried apples in their hands and showed them to Sarah. “Save us, too. We want to go someplace where we won’t starve.”

“I’m trapped in a cage, I can’t help you,” Sarah said. “Radley, are you going back?”

Radley nodded. “Come on. It’s a long walk, but hopefully Fortuna will keep us from meeting any feral vampires.”

Caldwell glared as the citizens of Valeholm gathered to depart. Sarah had reached out to Keturah, who would be able to help once they were away from the city. Sarah said, “Letting them go was a bit of decency I didn’t expect from you.”

Caldwell scowled at Sarah. “Legally, it is their right to relocate. Good riddance. As for decency, I am governing this city the right way, despite your opinion of it.”

Sarah shook her head. “I think that you could do so much better. However, I don’t have a good sense about how people can be happy living like this.”

“What would you change?” Caldwell asked.

“I think you should stop dictating policy under the influence of a thing masquerading as a god. Take a lesson from the vempari,” Sarah said. “I would also make sure that the orphans are fed and educated the same as someone with working-class parents. I wonder where they got the apples.”

“Probably stolen,” Caldwell said. “There was a whole bushel at the shrine.”

“That is not good,” Sarah said. “Apples are the symbol of Discordia, her order-hating counterpart. Even if you don’t have Eris’ attention, it is daring Fortuna to cause unwholesome mischief.”

“There’s more than one?” Caldwell asked.

“I’m not sure,” Sarah said. “There is evidence that something is acting as Fortuna, but everything else might be nothing more than a myth.”

“So things will be calmer if we stop giving her apples?” Caldwell asked.

“Hard to say what’s going through her head. She might just think it’s funny, and the apples have nothing to do with what’s going on,” Sarah said. “It might be that you need to stop trying to break her playthings before she really gets upset.”

“Nice Try. I’m not backing down,” Caldwell said.

Sarah shrugged. “I do think of Fortuna as a child. Perhaps you should keep that in mind.” Then she turned with a quizzical expression and said, “He still can’t be near me.”

Caldwell turned and saw his son walking across the square. He walked to meet him and said, “Birney, what are you doing here?”

“I just heard what you’re doing. Let her go,” Birney said.

“She knocked over a shrine to Fortuna,” Caldwell said.

“Then let Fortuna punish her,” Birney said.

Caldwell put a hand on Birney’s arm. “We cannot risk her wrath.”

Birney knocked his father’s hand away. “Her wrath? Fortuna is not the one you should be worried about.”

The wind started to blow, and Birney stared up at the gathering clouds. “Oh no. I did this, but I don’t know how to stop it.”

Kain appeared in response to Sarah’s call. He glanced at the clouds and commanded, “Everyone get inside! Shelter under stone or wood; stay away from metal and water!” He telekinetically yanked the cage open and then went to Birney. As lightning crackled through the roiling clouds, Kain murmured to the young Guardian.

Sarah went to Caldwell and grabbed his arm. “You need shelter, too. If it’s anything like last time, it will be bad.”

Caldwell yanked his arm away. “This is a trick.” He turned to confront Kain, but both the vampire and his son disappeared.

A bolt of lightning struck the cage, sending Caldwell and Sarah flying. Sarah tried to blink away the spots in front of her eyes, but she could see well enough to know that Caldwell was on the ground. She grabbed him and began running for a street that hopefully had doors into shelter.

“In here.” She couldn’t see who was pushing her, but Sarah smelled Melchiahim.

Sarah heard voices and smelled human fear-sweat, but she ignored them. “He’s not breathing.” She then started CPR.

Beyond her notice, the Melchiahim was keeping the townspeople from interfering. He explained that she wasn’t trying to turn their Head Chancellor. After several moments, the Chancellor awoke and clutched his ribs.

“You almost died,” Sarah told him. “It is lucky that I prevented your death from being Birney’s fault.”

“Are you sure he’s not a vampire now?” a man asked.

They were in a bar. The Melchiahim took the glass-washing pan and dumped it on the Chancellor. “He’s still human.”

There was a particularly loud crash of thunder from outside, sounding more like an explosion because it was too close to echo. A man who looked old enough to be a grandfather said, “There was a storm like this almost thirty years ago, but it sounds worse.”

Sarah shook her head, “It’s smaller, but you’re at the center of it.”

“Are we going to die?” a younger man asked.

Sarah shrugged. “We should be alright. Is there a bard here? How about some songs to get our minds off of it.”

With the lack of bard, Sarah sang a song called “[Wake me Up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y_KJAg8bHI)” and then went into “[Bottle of Wine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVbRh2p1sbA)” though she skipped the last verse. After that, the people started sharing drinking songs.

Morning came, and Sarah asked Caldwell, “Do you still want to try killing me?”

“Yes.” Caldwell grimaced in pain. “Your continued existence angers Fortuna.”

“Okay, I’ll go back to the cage,” Sarah said.

There was the scorched body of a Turelim lying in the courtyard. A few guards poked fearfully at it.

“Oh, Bavol.” Sarah knelt by the body. “Don’t worry, he’s not getting up. Can you carry him respectfully out of the city so that his own kind can give him a proper funeral?”

The cart used for trade with Nadzeya was in the city, and Sarah and the Melchiahim loaded Bavol’s body onto it. Turel’s clan was one of the smaller ones, but that didn’t mean that all Turelim knew each other. Hema and Bavol had barely exchanged more than a dozen sentences despite both being alive since the empire was thriving.


	15. Chapter 15

“Are you sure that you’re up for this?” Archimedes asked. “When I assumed my Guardianship, it was painful.”

While sixteen wasn’t an ideal age to assume Guardianship, it couldn’t be helped. It wasn’t just that Birney needed to be confirmed to gain control over the storm, but Bavol’s death created an imbalance that threatened to tear Kain’s soul from its moorings. This was the main reason why Balance Guardians continued to serve their Pillar after their death, to ensure that Balance could always be maintained no matter how many fell.

“Kain told me that if you had warned him, he could have made it less traumatic,” Birney said. “He’s limiting my powers, giving me time to adjust. I now know why I hate being here so much. I hate that my father tried to keep me here instead of letting the Circle raise me completely away from this city.”

“Sometimes a good rule creates a bad situation,” Archimedes said. “I apologize for not breaking it when I knew that it was what I should have done.”

Birney nodded. “I know enough about my father’s games that he would have made things difficult for you. He thinks that he can use me, but now I can turn it around and use him instead. It would be simpler if we could just tell him who he’s trying to kill.”

“I did warn him that trying to use you would fail, and that he had a better chance of gaining influence in the Circle through me. Fortunately, a promise to keep his interests in mind isn’t beyond what I’m willing to do for the other human cities,” Archimedes said. “When we decided to let Sarah be punished, we did not realize that Caldwell would ask for her death. That he was then willing to get on Keturah’s bad side indicates that he’s either stupid or has faith that the rules would protect him from a Guardian’s grudge. He would not be afraid of Tanyanika or anyone else who cares for Sarah, especially myself after how I’ve treated her in front of him.”

“Hopefully being dead for a minute made him more willing to listen,” Birney said. “Despite what it led to, I’m glad that you told me what was going on. Part of me is glad that it’s not my fault, and that he’s not dead, but I’m wondering how differently I’d feel if he wasn’t my father.”

“I’ll let you know when Catullus is in a mood for you to ask about his father,” Archimedes said. “Caldwell will ask you why Sarah’s life is so important to you. Do you have an acceptable reason prepared?”

That led to a bit of discussion about what the reason should be. Birney did not like politics, but he knew how far he could trust Archimedes.

The council chamber was half-full. Caldwell tried to stand, flinched at his broken ribs, and kindly asked his son, “What are you doing here?”

Birney strode toward his father. “Do not worry, I am in full control of my powers now. I am here as myself to ask you again to spare the vampire.” He laid a hand on his father’s chest, and the pain in his ribs faded. “Continuing to seek her death is ungrateful, considering what could have happened if she hadn’t shared her breath with you.”

Caldwell took his first full breath since he had been struck by lightning and regarded his son with surprise. “Why do you care so much?”

“She’s not just Archimedes’ servant,” Birney said. “That agreeing to let you punish Sarah means you’re trying to kill her… Some of the others are upset about it. I’m upset about it. This isn’t right.”

“Kain knew what the punishment would be before he allowed it,” Caldwell said.

Archimedes scowled. “Thank you for telling us. Kain overstepped himself by allowing something the rest of us do not condone. We did not expect such a small thing to carry a death sentence. I have just looked to the details of your agreement, and I would be allowed to temporarily kill Sarah with light repercussions. Once your justice is satisfied, I can forbid her from entering your city again.”

Caldwell shook his head. “Kain did not specify that we weren’t allowed to burn her. Inviting the wrath of Fortuna can be answered with nothing less than permanently ending her.”

“I hate to mention this, but I was visited by Fortuna in a vision,” Archimedes said. “She gave me her blessing and indicated that Sarah would bring me luck. I’m willing to risk that Fortuna isn’t too unhappy about the shrine, considering that it’s back up without even so much as damage to the statue.”

“You’ve claimed that you didn’t know the will of Fortuna,” Caldwell said.

“She spoke in riddles, but the part about Sarah was clear,” Archimedes said.

“Did she mention anything about apples?” Caldwell asked. “Sarah said that offering her apples was daring Fortuna to cause mischief.”

“Fortuna called the apples entertaining, but it might be a better idea to stop that part,” Archimedes said.

Someone from the gathered attendees said, “We cannot let the statue remain empty-handed. Her ball was lost, and we must mollify her until it is found.”

Birney summoned a ball from his pocket dimension and tossed it to the shrine attendant. “How about this? It was my favorite toy as a child, but I’m willing to let her have it if it will help.”

The shrine attendant looked dubious. “A toy might offend her.”

Archimedes said, “I don’t think so. She made references to playthings, so a toy might make her happy.”

“That vampire tried to convince me that Fortuna was like a child and she was akin to a plaything,” Caldwell said. “There are old stories about evil toys that attack the children they are given to.”

Archimedes sighed. “I do not know what stories you’re talking about, but it believable that they are rooted in truth. I cannot see where this path will lead, but I don’t think it will end well for you.”


	16. Chapter 16

The Guardians were asked to leave, and so they did. Archimedes frowned and said, “I want to talk to Sarah. I could do it telepathically, but perhaps it would ease your mind if you could speak with her as well. Tanyanika’s the one who really needs to be protected from her.”

Without bait, and with the public cage needing repair, Sarah had been moved to a private cell. There were two human guards and a vampire witness, but between Birney and Archimedes, they were convinced to wait outside.

“You may speak as long as you behave yourself,” Archimedes told Sarah. “We tried to convince Caldwell to let you go, but it seems like he won’t settle for anything less than your permanent death. I’m not sure that this is even about Fortuna. I want you to escape however you can.”

Sarah swallowed. “I think I pushed him too hard. I’m sorry. By the time I realized that I should back off, the situation had gained too much momentum. He might snap if I leave now, and I’m not sure what else I can do.”

Archimedes sighed. “She drove Catullus’ father into madness without meaning to because he was stubborn as well. That she’s accidentally dangerous is the reason why we decided she shouldn’t be around Tanyanika until she’s able to defend herself, and it still might not do any good considering her personality.”

“What my father is doing isn’t right, even if you were a random person acting against Fortuna. He could have prevented this if he was able to back down,” Birney said. “I’m not going to protect him. As long as his stubbornness is what’s hurting him, do what you need to do.”

“Thank you, and… I’m sorry, Birney,” Sarah said.

“That name doesn’t fit me,” Birney said.

“I do know what you’re going to call yourself, but I’m not sure how you were supposed to find it on your own,” Archimedes said. “It’s a Terran name that means orchid, which is a beautiful and valuable flower.”

Birney was skeptical. “What is it?”

“Tegeirian,” Archimedes said.

“Sounds dignified enough as long as no one else knows what it means,” Birney said. “Tegeirian. I like it.”

“There is one more thing… about your toy ball,” Archimedes said. “It has been recarved so no one would recognize it, but it is the lost ball that the statue was meant to hold. I didn’t know what it was when I gave it to you. Fortuna specifically told me that I didn’t need to take it away from you, and so I stopped thinking about it years ago. It didn’t occur to me to tell you until you decided to give it back.”

Sarah began laughing. “Tyche really set that one up.”

Tegeirian frowned at Sarah. “Are you taking this seriously?”

Sarah suddenly sobered and stared at him grimly. “As much as I can. Treating this with a little humor might improve the odds. I’m going to stay and hope Caldwell gets lucky, but I could use any help you can sneak in, even if it’s just ideas.”

“I order you to do whatever you can to survive,” Archimedes said.

“Noted, but I think that means finishing this game. I’m sure things will escalate even if I manage to escape without killing anyone. Besides, I think I can win.” Sarah pulled two emergency bottles of vimputu out of her pocket dimension and downed them. She didn’t know when she would have another chance to do that without being seen.

A week passed. The guards had taught Sarah and the vampire witness, a Melchiahim named Rodney, a card game similar to Poker. Neither vampire had money to gamble with, but one guard’s brother was a bard, and he bought some of the songs that Sarah knew.

The table was pushed against the cage, and as the guard named Nilson settled into his spot, Sarah said, “Don’t sit so close.”

The other guard was named Peyton, and he looked at Sarah with pity. “Do vampires die from thirst?”

Rodney said, “It takes a long time, but not letting me feed her is cruel.”

Nilson said, “Caldwell is getting impatient. Everyone is afraid, so they’re not breaking laws were the penalty is being bait. Someone is likely to get framed.”

Sarah had a tidy pile of money. Rodney knew that she was cheating to make it seem like her luck was uncanny, though he was doubtful that such a poor plan would work. Sarah handed him several coins and asked, “Do you know what to do?”

“You can’t seriously want me to buy a prisoner for Caldwell to bait you with,” Rodney said.

“Make sure it’s someone who deserves it,” Sarah said. “I don’t want to watch another innocent suffer over this.”

Nilson turned to Peyton. “Is it weird to you that a couple of vampires are less monstrous than our dear Head Chancellor?”

Peyton paused in shuffling the cards. “There are vampires outside the wall that will snarl and growl before backing off, but these two seem like decent people.”

Rodney tapped a black ribbon that was tied to one of his chest-piercings. “This indicates a willingness to talk to the one who will destroy us, and many of us do lose our savagery after we hear what she has to say. The ones who want to remain savage have started to shun us, and we have been told to wear these ribbons as a warning as well." He turned to Sarah. "We don’t want to lose you, Destroyer.”

Sarah shook her head. “The message is out there, and it should outlive me as long as you remember it. Hopefully everyone will learn that they don’t need to be monsters just because they hunger for the blood of the living.”

Nilson folded his hand. “I just wanted her to last long enough for us to try and win our money back, but it sounds like having her run loose is good for us.”

“The only place with vampires that I’m allowed to be is Nadzeya, so I wasn’t running loose,” Sarah said. “Once I don’t need this money to gamble with, I’m willing to buy your service. If you send a message to a place that has a Guardian, there is a box for petitions to the Circle. Radley said that he would try to set up a way for orphans to get to Valeholm, but he might need some help from citizens of Letestadt. The Circle might be willing to coordinate the effort, they just don’t have the authority to tell someone who’s not a servant what to do.”

Peyton nodded. “I wouldn’t have gotten into this career if I hadn’t been starving.”


	17. Chapter 17

The next day, Sarah was put into the cage with fresh bait. The man was young, and he screamed, “Please, I don’t want to die!”

“This man is a murderer,” Caldwell said. “He is from a nameless settlement outside of Aschedorf, but according to their laws his punishment was being sold as vampire food. I’ve granted him citizenship, so now he is bait. If this vampire kills him, we have the right to kill her.”

After Caldwell left, Sarah asked. “Murderer, did you consider that perhaps your victims didn’t want to die?”

“I didn’t care. I just wanted to see them bleed,” the murderer said. “It’s no different than what you’d do, vampire.”

“Before the truce, I did hunt. Countless deaths just because I was hungry. I’ve never murdered, though I have been especially angry at my prey on more than one occasion.” Sarah decided not to mention the innocent man she had tortured to death. Not many knew about that shameful act, and she wished to leave it in the past.

“If it wasn’t for that truce, I would have become a vampire,” the murderer said. “Being able to kill and justify it as necessary to live… it would have been glorious.”

“Vampires don’t need to kill anymore. That’s what allows the truce to exist,” Sarah said. “I am being needlessly starved because I knocked over a stupid shrine to a spirit that doesn’t care. If my self-control holds, you will know what it means to be thirsty.”

This time, the bait wasn’t being starved. They brought him proper meals and enough ale to make him tipsy. Sarah licked her lips and wished that the ale wouldn’t burn her, that she could steal some of his food. Reading his mind as he ate was something Sarah had done to others in the past, but now it just reminded her that she was starving.

On the third day of this, the vampire witness approached the cage. It was Hema. She dropped a black ribbon in front of Sarah, who was resting on the floor of the cage. “How much longer can you hold out, Destroyer?”

Sarah groggily lifted her head. “A while yet.”

Hema crouched so that she was face to face with Sarah. “You harmed Kain. He laughed and treated me with pity, just as you have done.”

“That must be upsetting for you,” Sarah said. “He spent five centuries with me without realizing that being in my presence would affect him.”

Hema turned to the murderer. “I overheard that you want to be a vampire. Being legitimate prey does not always mean being eaten. I am willing to bring you into clan Turel if you kill her.” Hema pulled out a stake and handed it to the murderer.

Sarah struggled to get to her feet. “Wait!”

But the murderer drove the stake through her heart. Sarah collapsed, too weak to yell in pain before dying.

Kain appeared, the Soul Reaver in his hand. Hema only had time to stand up before the sword split her in two. Then Kain impaled the murderer.

Kain waited until Caldwell came. “The rest of the Circle is furious with me for not restricting what punishment could be dealt to a beloved servant. I am willing to offer a favor in exchange for her intact body, though it must be a reasonable request.”

Caldwell shook his head and ordered, “Prepare a pyre!”

As the wood was gathered, the sky became cloudy and a light but soaking drizzle began to fall. Sarah’s body was laid on the pyre, but it was too wet to light. Sarah’s wings bore the brunt of the rain, and her skin dissolved to reveal the tough membrane underneath.

Kain watched from under an overhang. An hour gave no indication that the rain was going to let up, and Caldwell approached him. “Is this Birney’s doing?”

“He’s renamed himself Tegeirian,” Kain said. “No, it is irresponsible to deliberately mess with the weather. He did not cause this, nor will he try to move or stop it unless it threatens to flood the city. He says that it should clear on its own in about a week.”

Caldwell frowned. There were no furnaces large enough for a body and it didn’t occur to him to have her chopped into manageable pieces.

The mood was somber in Letestadt. There was some fear that the stake would fall out of Sarah’s heart, though the gory mess left by the dissolution of her skin did not deteriorate further. In the tavern, a bard sung a song he had bought from Sarah. He found it odd that a vampire would know a song called [Stand in the Rain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIwfruNJNUU), but it seemed fitting coming from his mouth, considering what the weather was doing.

Eventually the clouds cleared, and the steam from the soaked wood began melting the skin on Sarah’s body that had been shielded by her prone position. Soon it would be dry enough to light, and then the shrine-toppling vampire would be cleansed with fire.

Torches were being prepared when a shrine attendant ran into the courtyard. “The statue! We were changing Fortuna’s blindfold, and her eyes have turned green! It’s a sign that she does not want this vampire destroyed!”

Nilson and Peyton were attending the funeral. Nilson spoke up, “During the week that we were waiting for new bait, we played cards with Sarah. She kept winning. Having luck like that is not natural.”

A teenager in ragged clothes, an orphan that had been left behind, said, “The people who met Sarah after stealing offerings were lucky, too.”

Caldwell took a torch and turned to the pyre. “If Fortuna wants her saved, then she will stop me.”

The shrine attendant was still holding the blindfold; it was red. She glanced down at it, and then rushed forward. She used it as a garrote, pulling it taught against Caldwell’s throat. “You’re the one inviting Fortuna’s wrath.”

Everyone stared in shock. Moments went by until Caldwell gurgled his last breath. The shrine attendant released the blindfold, and Caldwell dropped to the ground. Then the attendant walked to the pyre, grabbed the stake, and pulled.

Kain roughly shoved her out of the way as Sarah came back to life. Disoriented by death and hungry beyond reason, she leapt on Kain and sunk her fangs into his throat. He grunted in discomfort but grabbed her relatively unscathed shoulders to support her.

Archimedes helped the woman up. “Idiot. You’re lucky that we were watching. Never unstake a vampire.”

Tegeirian knelt by his father’s body. “This was your fault. Hopefully Sherrod won’t be as stubborn as you were.”

Tegeirian had to go before the sub-chancellors to clear up the confusion about succession. “Sherrod has been prepared for this, and he’s our father’s true heir. I cannot be responsible for this city as well as being a Pillar Guardian.”

“Do you have an opinion on what we should do with the woman?” Sherrod asked him.

Tegeirian thought. “I would have preferred if our father could have been stopped without killing him, and it was for the wrong reason… She deserves a trial.”


	18. Chapter 18

That Tegeirian had been confirmed in his Guardianship and immediately been allowed to meet Sarah had caused Tanyanika to spark an argument, including a threat to sneak to the Pillars and assume her Guardianship without proper warning.

“The two things have nothing to do with each other,” Archimedes said. “Tegeirian got to see her because of his father and I’m not introducing you until I think you’re ready.”

“Sarah is going to go on trial as well as that other woman, so there might not be a later… unless she suddenly stopped blinding you enough that you know if she’ll survive,” Tegeirian said. “Sarah didn’t seem that strange to me. At least not any weirder than any other person associated with the Circle.”

Archimedes sighed. “A brief meeting with strict rules, then. That Sarah got herself into that mess was directly violating my orders, so there’s a chance she might do it again too soon for my liking.”

Though healed from her ordeal, Sarah still had scars that would fade into nothingness in a short time. Her wings were covered in an ointment to soothe the itchiness associated with the regrown skin.

“What were you thinking?” Tanyanika demanded.

Sarah considered. “I wasn’t.”

Tanyanika shook her head. “That’s improbable.”

“Habit, hard to make a different decision and I didn’t take the time to try, easier to deliberately rip my own skin off than ignore what I was seeing,” Sarah explained.

“You could have been killed permanently. Even with the idea that an unknown entity would help you, that was too close,” Tanyanika said.

“Tyche might have gotten bored with me, or she might even have gotten offended. I do not trust her to help me when it’s most needed,” Sarah said. “That I keep doing stupid stuff like this means that it’s likely to catch up with me.”

“Then stop,” Tanyanika said.

Archimedes said, “Unrestrained mayhem is her true element. While not an exact opposite, she is an antithesis to my principle. I can’t help seeing what’s coming and want to control it, she can’t help being unpredictable and uncontrollable. I’m used to it in a way, but it’s still irritating.”

“I really do try to behave,” Sarah said. “Maybe I should be incapacitated until you’re ready to know me properly.”

Tanyanika shook her head and turned to Tegeirian. “What are the chances of her surviving this trial?”

Tegeirian shrugged. “They still fear the wrath of Fortuna. If they think it’s her will that Sarah should die for what she did, they’ll keep trying. Maybe we can convince them that Fortuna wants Sarah alive.”

“I don’t want that,” Sarah said. “A lot of people got hurt in this wreck and I want it to mean something. There’s a woman with blood on her hands because she thought she was acting according to Fortuna’s will. I want to convince them that they can’t know what Fortuna wants, and that Tyche is capable of dealing with crimes against her without help.”

“You’re gambling with your life,” Archimedes said. “Stand down and cut your losses.”

“When playing the stock market, you don’t get out just because things are going bad. As long as I don’t lose, there is a chance to win,” Sarah said. “All you can do to me is punish me for disobeying. I would rather have your help to mitigate the chaos that comes when I improvise.”

Archimedes scowled. “I can contain you until this blows over.”

Sarah shrugged. “If you must. I’m wondering how that will turn out.”

“Is that a threat?” Archimedes asked.

Sarah gazed at him. “A hunch that it won’t go well. What other damage will they do if they’re not saved from Tyche?”

Tanyanika frowned. “Archimedes, I know you told me not to let her convince me of anything, but you know how bad it can be when people let religion dictate their actions.”

Archimedes cringed. “It’s risky, but I can stack the odds a bit even with her interfering with my powers.”

“Okay, so an angle of attack that might work is to point out that every element was the result of someone making a decision,” Sarah said. 

“Technically, it raining for a week was the result of the storm I accidentally caused, but trying to explain that will be hard,” Tegeirian said.

“I’d love to discuss the weather with you sometime, but maybe we’ll gloss over that. If it does come up, let me bullshit them. I know thirty words for wind and a bit of excited gesturing with my wings should sell it,” Sarah said. “The part I can’t figure out is the statue’s eyes turning green. Did some prankster do it to help me?”

“The blindfold grew mold and some of it stuck to the statue when they went to change it,” Tegeirian said.

Sarah laughed. “Are there rules about making people stand trial when they’re too incompetent to be in charge of themselves?”

“Don’t suggest it,” Tegeirian said. “With what you’re trying to do… if that woman is declared an assassin, even being sentenced to be bait, it would be merciful compared to being locked in the madhouse.”

Sarah stared at him with a haunted expression. “I am filled with regret at not knowing that it existed when I could have tried to do something.”

Tanyanika asked, “Would I be able to do something once I have my authority?”

Archimedes nodded. “Depending on the details of how you go about it.”

“How does baiting normally work?” Sarah asked. “There shouldn’t be any feral vampires left. Are people just tethered outside the wall until they die?”

“If they survive a week, then they’re either executed or let go, depending on the severity of what they did,” Tegeirian said.

“Do you think they’d be willing to do an Aschedorf death penalty if she survives baiting?” Sarah asked. “That woman saved my unlife and I’d like to return the favor by making her potential punishment non-fatal… if it’s okay with you.”

“This is a conflict of values,” Archimedes told Tegeirian. “She hates death that she deems unnecessary. Will you be harmed by having Sarah interfere with your justice?”

Tegeirian thought for a moment. “If it comes to that, death might be more merciful, but otherwise it is unnecessary to kill her. As far as I’m concerned, Caldwell brought this on himself and that woman happened to be the one pushed into stopping him.”

“Can I come to the trial?” Tanyanika asked.

Sarah shook her head. “Please don’t. I don’t intend to behave myself and I don’t want you getting hurt.”


	19. Chapter 19

Sarah had a bit of culture shock about the way the trial was set up. For one thing, she didn’t have a proper lawyer. She could bring friends along to offer advice, which meant Tegeirian, Archimedes, and Kain because he decided to tag along. For another, the chancellors were the judges, and that Sherrod was the new Head Chancellor made Sarah question if he had a conflict of interest. Tegeirian assured Sarah that chancellors were not allowed to take things personally during a hearing, and Sherrod was too young to be given full authority. The weirdest part was that Sarah and the woman that killed Caldwell were standing trial at the same time for different crimes, though that was explained as how their testimonies affected each other’s trial.

The woman’s name was Eglantine, and she spoke first. “I did kill Head Chancellor Caldwell. He was going to bring the wrath of Fortuna down on us, and so I strangled him with her blindfold.”

Sarah went next and spoke with Tegeirian’s direction. “I knocked over a shrine to Fortuna. If she is angry about it, I invite her to do with me as she will and spare anyone else her wrath. I refute that anyone knows her will or can act on her behalf. If the people of this city want to punish me, I will pay the fine for vandalizing publicly-displayed artwork.”

Chancellor Mendel considered. “You claim that Fortuna doesn’t care about the offerings.”

“Yes, I do believe that,” Sarah said. “I don’t know whether or not she wanted anything bad to happen to me, and this mess contains conflicting beliefs about what Fortuna wanted done with me. I’m willing to admit that my belief might be wrong as well. I ask that offering thieves not be beaten, and just observe what happens to them without people interfering.”

“It is a shame that Valeholm is far enough that we cannot receive a prompt answer about how those thieves fared,” Mendel said.

“We can arrange for one to appear fairly quickly if you insist, Chancellor,” Kain said. “It will be more convenient if you could trust my word on their welfare.”

“If you could summon one, I would like for you to do that,” Mendel said.

Within minutes, Catullus appeared in the company of a scrawny boy. When asked how he was doing, he whined, “They’re making us go to school. Every day they’re trying to teach us things like reading and math. I tried to stop accepting food and leave, but they won’t let me.”

Catullus balked. “I apologize. I just picked the one that was closest to the door.”

Mendel waved dismissively. “I’m aware of your laws. How will his unhappiness be handled?”

“We will assess whether his situation needs to change. I assure you that we are treating all of the refugees with the utmost care,” Catullus said. “Radley is still with us if you’d rather trust his word.”

Mendel nodded. “I know his handwriting; he can send a letter.” Catullus disappeared with the boy, and Mendel chuckled, “That seems like it was a mixed blessing.”

Sherrod nodded in agreement. He’d once tried to insist that he wanted to run loose like the orphans did instead of being trained for his birth-rite, but being sent to bed without supper and threatening to deny him breakfast the next morning was enough to make him reconsider. “Calling him here was actually unnecessary considering what we know about Radley.”

Mendel shook his head. “He obviously had Fortuna’s blessing. I wanted to see someone else.”

Woodruff addressed Eglantine. “What makes you think that sparing the vampire was what Fortuna wanted?”

“We were changing the blindfold when we noticed that the statue’s eyes had turned green,” Eglantine said. “This vampire also has green eyes. I know someone who says that the eyes are always yellow or occasionally red.”

Kain said, “Those are most common, but variations occur. My fourth son’s eyes remained blue for at least a millennium.”

“It’s a coincidence; it doesn’t mean anything,” Sarah said. “I’m told that the green color on the statue was caused by the blindfold molding.”

“Coincidence, or luck?” Mendel asked.

Sarah frowned as she scanned the room. There were onlookers and she smirked as she confirmed that there were almost thirty people. “I bet that there are two people in this room that were born on the same day of the year.”

The exercise was indulged, and they went through the entire crowd without a match. Considering how the years had less days on Nosgoth, it was even less likely that they got through Eglantine’s party without a match.

When it got to Sarah’s turn, she said, “I don’t know.”

“My father told me that you grew up with your mother,” Sherrod said. “Didn’t she tell you?”

Sarah shrugged, “She told me, but I don’t know when June twenty-fourth is locally.”

Mendel asked, “Do you know what your star sign is?”

“I’m a Cancer.”

Archimedes couldn’t help laughing at that. He then frowned when Tegeirian announced his own birthday wrong. A quick conversation revealed that Letestadt did not use one of the calendars that Archimedes was familiar with. He did a quick conversion to what his birth certificate would show if it hadn’t been destroyed.

Mendel raised his hand. “It appears we’re a match. Your mother must have hated missing that year’s festival.”

“I’m a little older than I look, so it was before the festival started.” Archimedes was thirty-three, but he had decided to stop aging a decade ago because he didn’t like that people were starting to take him more seriously as he gained a mature appearance. He wanted people to underestimate him a little.

Mendel turned to Sarah. “So how did you know that would happen?”

Sarah shrugged. “With this many people, the chances of two being born on the same day of the year is about fifty percent. Now that you know that, it doesn’t seem too surprising, does it?”

“Do you know the chances that it would be me?” Mendel asked.

Sarah shook her head. “I’d have to talk to someone that’s better at math to even explain why those are the chances that two people in a room might share a birthdate. Still, it doesn’t mean anything that you just happened to be the one it happened to. If you do this in a different room with this many people, you’d probably not be one of the people it happens to. It’s a significant-looking thing without the significance. The one who led this demonstration for me was my match, but there was also another pair, and he didn’t bother to explain the chances of that happening.”

Eglantine asked, “Are you saying that the green eyes wasn’t a sign from Fortuna?”

“I don’t know, but it could have not been as well,” Sarah said. “I really am grateful to be back in the land of the living, but what you did was by your decision and not the will of Fortuna. Every part of this except the mold was caused by someone making a decision. Me kicking the shrine, Caldwell deciding he wanted my death, Radley, Hema… All decisions.”

Woodruff frowned. “What about the rainstorm that delayed your incineration?”

Tegeirian said, “That was a result of the magical storm I accidentally caused. Messing with the weather is tricky. It wouldn’t have rained if I hadn’t influenced it, and I couldn’t influence it more without causing further problems.”

Woodruff said, “I’d like for you to go into more detail.”

Sarah spoke up. “If you allow me. I’m good friends with a vempari and when they talk about the weather, it comes with a deep understanding about how it works, including words that grounded people don’t need.” She started to explain, faltered, and then said, “I’m sorry, it’s hard to explain and translate at the same time.”

Archimedes got up from his seat and stood next to her. “You explain, I’ll try to translate.” He listened to Sarah and then said, “The literal translation is that a wind turned into a wind, but the meaning is that a weak-upwards-playful-unhelpful wind fell into being a heavy-sideways-directed wind.”

Sarah continued her explanation, hitting on about five more words for wind, but then she stopped. “You have that backwards. You’re describing a [gust] becoming a [breeze] but really it’s a [breeze] becoming a [gust] and that sort of thing usually doesn’t happen on its own.”

Woodruff motioned for Archimedes to sit down. “This is pointless and some of those winds sound like the same thing. I think that having it be so wet that week would cause mold, so the sign was the result of... it’s not funny, but it’s like a Sherman play.”

Sherman plays often relied on tropes like Disaster Dominoes and For Want of a Nail. Tegeirian was able to quickly explain to Archimedes and Kain over their symbiotic link.

Archimedes said, “This whole affair is like a Sherman play.”

Sherrod asked, “Does Fortuna even exist?”

“Oh, that is a good question,” Sarah said. “What if the evidence we’re seeing that she does exist is simply random weirdness?”

“Fortuna came to me in a vision,” Archimedes said.

“You’re rejecting the possibility that it was a prank?” Sarah asked. 

“How could someone play a prank like that?” Sherrod asked.

“I refuse to talk about it here, and I order Sarah to remain silent on what she knows about it,” Archimedes said.

“I suggest that we let Fortuna deal with crimes against her,” Sherrod said. “Maybe we’ll get some actual proof.”

Mendel shook his head. “The goddess of luck should be able to show us what she wants if we flip a coin.”

Sarah frowned. “Testing deities rarely goes well.”

“I insist,” Mendel said.

Sarah shrugged. “I would like to see the coin beforehand. Many of them are uneven and tend to fall one way more than the other.”

Kain summoned his coin-pouch and dumped it into his hand. He selected one and handed it to the chancellor. “This one is close to even.” Though the empire collapsed long ago, the coins were still valid currency. This was a thick and heavy gold coin with Kain’s face and symbol.

Mendel’s eyes widened slightly at the size of the coin. That the leader of the vampires would emblazon the coin with his own face didn’t faze him, it was that he reckoned that he might be holding at least the equivalent to a year of his salary. It was difficult for him to consider casually tossing a coin with such an obscene value, even with the gravity of the wager.

“Lady Fortuna of the Stars, please give us a sign of your will. Heads if you want this vampire to die, tails if you want her to live.” Mendel tossed the coin upwards, and it twisted in the air before striking the stone floor and bouncing with the chiming of a small bell. When the coin settled, it was resting on its edge.

“Thanks a lot, Tyche,” Sarah said.

“What does it mean?” Mendel asked.

Sarah shrugged. “She might not have decided, she might not want to tell us, she might want me to die but not at your hand, she might be irritated at being questioned… or it might be something else, including random chance.”

“I want to try again.” Mendel reached for the coin.

“I suggest not,” Sarah said. “If you are going to insist on continuing to test her, can I leave? Call me a hypocrite all you want, but I do not want to be standing near someone who is trying to get smote.”

Sherrod laughed. “You sound like you fear Fortuna’s wrath as well.”

Sarah considered. “Well, I have my failings. Seeing children being hurt makes me angry, and I realize now that I frightened a lot of people by my actions. I’m sure that Tyche isn’t the same entity as what the vempari once worshipped, and that malevolent leech is still in the process of dying, but I…”

Sarah’s eyes unfocused, and she seemed to be looking for things that weren’t there. “It’s happening again. Boss, grandsire, help me.” It sounded like a prayer.

Sarah was sent to Ozker, and the trial continued somewhat further with the assurance that her apparent breakage of sanity was temporary. Kain and Archimedes convinced the council that they could speak on Sarah’s behalf in a limited manner. Kain explained a bit about how Sarah had gotten caught up in his fight against the Elder God. Archimedes gave a perspective on how there was a fear that Fortuna would cause the same sorts of problems, but he also admitted that the Lady of the Stars was enigmatic while the parasite claiming to be the Wheel was very real. Between the two of them, they then explained how Sarah had lost track of her own viewpoint while attempting to understand how others saw the situation.

After that, the trial was put on hold to let the chancellors digest the information. Eglantine was held in the most comfortable prisoner quarters available, which was actually a step above the hovel she was used to.


	20. Chapter 20

Tegeirian was comforting Tanyanika about Sarah snapping. Though Hylden could choose whether or not to show their emotions, not showing them came at a cost, and Tanyanika was openly weeping about what happened to her predecessor.

Archimedes appeared and said, “I lie, I cheat, and I have no authority to tell you what to do… but when I ask you for a favor with something I can offer in exchange, I mean it.”

Tegeirian scowled at Archimedes. “Tanyanika had a right to know.”

“All I asked was that I be the one to tell her,” Archimedes said. “It looks like Sarah isn’t permanently broken. She even has a message that Chixiksi said made perfect sense. [Just blue-screen.] I do feel bad about how I needed to focus on helping to bring Sarah out of her turmoil instead of wasting time persuading Tegeirian against what he was likely to do no matter how much effort I put into convincing him otherwise."

Tanyanika frowned. “I have no idea what that meant. It sounded like you said ‘indifference to the giggling embroiderer’ but I think you might have said it wrong if Chixiksi thought it made sense.”

Tegeirian also frowned, but in thought. “If you couldn’t stop me, why are you angry?”

“Because from a linear perspective, you acted in a way that you knew was against what I wanted,” Archimedes said. “I’m too far from godhood to claim that I’m always fair.”

Tanyanika said, “[Oi] have your [pissing contest] later. I’m interested in my predecessor’s health.”

Because Hylden was a harsh and guttural language perfect for the task, both men knew the translations for Tanyanika’s swearing. 

“She’s fine,” Archimedes said. “She wouldn’t have lasted this long if she wasn’t incredibly resilient.”

“I don’t believe you,” Tanyanika said.

Archimedes sighed. “I just asked, and Sarah says that she feels well enough to come here, but she’s still a little addled.”

Tanyanika said, “I want to see her.”

Sarah appeared. “Hello.”

“Archimedes thinks you’re going to be fine, but Tegeirian said you prayed.” Tanyanika said.

“To those that could answer. Habit makes me call on Jesus occasionally and the local equivalent doesn’t answer prayers,” Sarah said. “I was having a conflict of values. Not just internal, but I was determined that I was right and then I saw that I might have been in the wrong. [I blue-screened.] I needed to be told right from wrong.”

“What is [giggling embroiderer]? It sounds like you believe it makes sense,” Tanyanika said.

“Sorry, outdated slang. Error messages don’t use it anymore,” Sarah said. “[I had a fatal error. I needed debugging and a reboot.]”

“Since you learned about Hylden through Chixiksi… he’s practically a relic,” Tanyanika said.

Archimedes frowned. “Could you please stick to English? I can barely do more than cuss in Hylden and I need to know what you said.”

Sarah telepathically provided the translation, and Archimedes yelled, “Did you seriously say that‽”

“What Tanayanika heard as giggling embroiderer is…” Sarah switched to telepathy to say ‘blue screen of death.’ “I don’t know why Terran nerds picked the most violent-sounding terms they could, but it sounds benign in Hylden.”

Archimedes growled as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Just… don’t.”

“I guess she didn’t go pants-on-head crazy,” Tegeirian said. 

“I spent a winter wearing pants on my head, but it fell under ‘if it’s stupid and it works, it’s not stupid,’” Sarah said. “I was drunk when I first came up with the idea, so I don’t know why I tried it, but it made the difference between being cold and miserable and just being unhappy about it being winter.”

“She’s inoculated,” Tanyanika said. “Shilen’tvork try to drive people a little crazy to protect them from breaking under more extreme conditions. Since Sarah serves as a particularly aggressive shilen’tvork, or because the world does it to her, it makes sense that she can remain sane, and her lapse is the weird part.”

“Yes, I think I really stopped trying to resist this place when Raziel stabbed me the second time, but I was brought into a fit of screaming before that. Thinking about what I’ve been through makes me wonder why I’m not gibbering,” Sarah said.

“You’re skirting the limits of how you’re supposed to behave,” Archimedes said.

Tanyanika held up a hand. “It’s okay. I think that as long as she’s not trying to hurt me, she won’t. I’ve been taught how to deal with shilen’tvork and I can apply it to her.” She turned to Sarah. “I’m really interested in what you can do when you’re not under restraint.”

“It might be better to have you screaming in horror instead of being slow about it.” Sarah thought for a moment. “Actually, I’m not so good when I’m trying to do it deliberately. Centipede’s dilemma.”

“I think that’s enough alien philosophy out of you.” Archimedes turned to Tanyanika. “Are you satisfied?”

Tanyanika shook her head. “Far from it, and she almost seems like someone from my caste that had to spend too much time alone rather than an alien.”

“I did spend maybe a century locked in a small room with almost no one to talk to except for Ozker and Chixiksi, and they had already spent who knows how long with only each other,” Sarah said. “There’s also the bit about how cultural contamination from Earth has gotten worked deeply into the fiber of Hylden society.”

“What‽” Archimedes bristled at Sarah. “What were you thinking?”

“Melchiahim culture had a positive effect in the early days, so Ozker and Chixiksi decided to introduce some Terran elements. I might have been a source for the idea, but I didn’t do anything about it unless they asked directly for help. Mostly they have movie theaters and Hylden remakes of films like Jurassic Park.” Sarah then gave the Hylden name for the movie, which caused Tanyanika to grin.

Archimedes sagged. “I really tried. I was just focused on the wrong thing.”

Sarah shrugged. “It’s not a complete loss. At least they have a sense of what normal is so they know when I’m being weird.” She turned toward Tanyanika. “I’ve heard it’s been hard, but his motives were in the right place. I am still scared that I might hurt you by accident.”


	21. Chapter 21

The trial continued the next day. Sarah said, “What happened to me is a personal flaw. The difference between good and evil depends on a viewpoint, and I was trying to have too many viewpoints at once.”

“You believe that good and evil aren’t absolute?” Mendel asked.

“People have flaws, so getting to the point of having an absolute knowledge of good and evil requires not being a flawed person,” Sarah said. “History is full of examples about people believing they were acting in the right when hindsight reveals that they were wrong.”

“Do you think that you might be wrong?” Mendel asked.

“I don’t know what Tyche is, so maybe she’s not something to be feared, or maybe I should be afraid of her reaction to me knocking over that shrine. People have also gotten hurt because of my actions and I’m not going to judge if anyone deserved it,” Sarah said. “What I do think is wrong is that Fortuna has inspired the taking of a life. Please do whatever you can to prevent something like this from happening again. If she is the sort of entity that wants that, then worshipping her is a bad idea.”

Sherrod said, “Acting in the name of Fortuna is not a justification. What my father tried to do was wrong, and Eglantine was not empowered to assassinate him. Sarah may go free, but Eglantine will be executed if she survives a week of being bait.”

Sarah asked, “Are you willing to handle her execution the way they do in Aschedorf? When someone there commits a crime with a death penalty, they are sold to vampires as food. Eglantine saved my life and I’d like to return the favor.”

Mendel said, “She can’t escape without punishment.”

Sarah said, “She might wish for death before I’m done with her.”

Eglantine still had to serve as bait. She was shackled to a ring set into the ground with ten meters of chain. Nilson and Peyton were the guards on watch. They were just out of sight, ready to kill any vampire that decided to attack her.

“Hey guys,” Sarah said.

“We were ordered to do this,” Peyton said. “If we had refused, or if we leave our post, we’d be next.”

Sarah shrugged. “Anyone who breaks the treaty must be feral, and it’s a kindness to put them down. At least there shouldn’t be anyone like that left.”

“Hopefully that weird luck you have will help,” Nilson said. “We’re not going to be able to do anything until after it attacks.”

“I try not to rely on luck, which is why I’m out here with you.” Sarah held up her spear. “Vampire rules work under a pseudo-anarchic system of might makes right. If a vampire threatens to take what’s mine, I get to kill them.”

“You can try.” Kain stepped out of the shadows. “I might take her simply to stop you from wasting your time on a worthless human.”

Sarah sighed. “If he’s seriously going to let himself get baited, just let him go. He’s an embodiment of might and you stand a better chance surviving if you don’t attack him.”

Kain shook his head. “What reason would I have for not eating every human they set out after I take the first one?”

“Oh. Your lives would be forfeit either way, and if you don’t attack him, that’s going to start a chain of deaths until someone does go after him or the rule changes,” Sarah said. “What do you want, Kain?”

“I want this offensive practice to end,” Kain said. 

Sarah turned to the men and shrugged apologetically. “Kain is not known for his mercy. Your only hope is that the chancellors will see reason.”

Peyton swallowed hard, but Nilson said, “We’ll look like cowards if we just give up.”

Sarah smiled in a way that bared her fangs. “Please don’t make us twist your arms. They might not heal properly and then where would you be?”

Eglantine was sent to Carthage, where the local vempari were more than happy to compassionately teach her about the evils of religion.

The next morning, Tanyanika and Archimedes were waiting for Sarah at her apartment. The purpose of the visit was supposed to be a friendly conversation about whatever topic Archimedes was willing to let them talk about. Sarah had spent the night celebrating her survival with the local vampires. Sarah teleported to her apartment and her smile dropped. “I’m sorry, I must have left something organic out.”

“The smell is coming from outside,” Tanyanika said. “The garbage caste are refusing to do their job.”

“Oh no,” Sarah said. “I am so sorry. This one was an accident, I swear.”

“What did you do?” Archimedes growled.

“I had something to dispose of, so I carried it down to the street like usual. I saw a sanitation worker with his wagon, so I asked if I could throw it in and he nodded. Then I thanked him and was about to go about my business when some lower bureaucrat got snooty at me for being polite to a trash person. My exact words were…” Sarah recited it in Hylden, “and then I came back up here.”

Tanyanika translated, “Where I come from, the garbage caste got tired of the disrespect and stopped working. That is when we learned how valuable they are.”

Archimedes seethed. “Sarah is a disaster waiting to happen and that is why I didn’t want you near her until later. I never imagined she’d manage to cause two problems at once, though this was exceptional in how easily she did it.”

“Sometimes I wish I wasn’t like this,” Sarah said. “I dislike that the sanitation workers get treated like garbage people, but causing social upheaval is not an appropriate response to not valuing an aspect of a foreign culture.”

“Hypocrite,” Archimedes said. “That’s your main purpose in life.”

“What are you going to do?” Tanyanika asked.

“Well, I was thinking about moving to the vampire district anyway,” Sarah said. “Hopefully I can lay low and avoid anyone figuring out that this mess is my fault. I’m running out of viable places to get kicked out of.”

Tanyanika frowned. “You’re just going to walk away from this one?”

“The leader caste is always going on about how wise and benevolent they are,” Sarah said. “I’m sure they’re about to figure out how to fix it without my help.”

“Are you out of touch with reality?” Tanyanika asked.

“I’m not very good with sarcasm,” Sarah said. “I do feel bad for setting it off, but that a few sentences was all it took shows that the situation was a powder keg to begin with. If it comes to meddling, Chixiksi knows everything I do about how my people solved it when it happened on my world, and he’s not prone to fits of dumbassery like I am. It helps that he’s also the right species, so it at least looks like it’s not outsider interference.”

Archimedes said, “When Sarah bothers to stop and think, and then if she’s rational, she’s actually fairly intelligent. In this case, I think that it’s best that she stays out of trying to fix the mess she made.”


	22. Chapter 22

Because the smell in Nadzeya was bordering on intolerable, and they were barely tolerated in Valeholm, Ozker and Chixiksi were staying with Archimedes while Ribaki stayed elsewhere. Many in Aschedorf were descended from humans who had lived in the ruins of the Hylden city in the past, and even welcomed Hylden assistance in building and maintaining their infrastructure. Ozker got a few odd looks, but they were curious rather than disdainful.

Archimedes appeared with Tanyanika, who yelled, “You said that we would have a chance to talk!”

“You just saw an example of how easily she causes damage and show no sign of acknowledging the danger,” Archimedes said.

“I’m aware of the risk and willing to take it,” Tanyanika said. “You trying to [swaddle] me is irresponsible.”

“What is this about?” Ozker asked.

“I just learned that Sarah’s the one who caused that mess with the garbage caste,” Archimedes said. “All it took was one sentence and she didn’t even realize what she was doing at the time.”

Ozker chuckled. “Actually, all she did was to get them interested in the possibility of being treated better. Chixiksi and I were the ones to discuss it with their management, and it took a lot of work to convince them to try.”

Tanyanika make a skeptical expression, “It sounds like you’re overstating how dangerous Sarah is.”

Chixiksi said to her, “I’m not sure all that you’ve been told. Protecting you as a child seemed like a reasonable precaution, but I think that you’re about at that point where you’re the least vulnerable to being harmed by Sarah and you should be allowed to talk to her.”

Archimedes said, “You can’t be serious.”

“We trusted you to know what was best for the group when they were children, now it’s time to trust me to know what’s best for Tanyanika,” Chixiksi said. “I don’t expect there to be any major problems, and if I am wrong it is probably better that they happen before Tanyanika assumes her role.”

Archimedes glared for a moment before saying, “I’d be outvoted if it comes to that. Let it be on your head if the worst happens.”

Chixiksi mentally called Sarah and filled her in on the situation, including how she had the wrong idea on why the New York garbage strike happened. She expressed gratitude that it took more than a sentence to start the mess with the garbage caste, and then psychically filled him and Ozker in about how she felt that she might be heading for a Life of Brian situation with the black-ribboners.

Despite her worries, Sarah appeared and smiled at Tanyanika. “So here we are. What do you want to know?”

“I’ve heard stories about you, but this is the second time I’ve known that you took the blame for something that wasn’t your fault, the first being Janos,” Tanyanika said. “Are any of the claims real?”

“That thing with the garbage caste was me jumping to conclusions, but generally the situations are a lot more complicated,” Sarah said. “As for Janos, I’ve come to terms with how I might have simply not been able to do enough to stop his madness as well as being a significant contribution to what would have happened without me being involved.”

“Archimedes said that you were able to warp Moebius using almost nothing but words and the most progress was made when you got distracted from doing it intentionally,” Tanyanika said. “He also said that Moebius should have been able to defend himself.”

Sarah frowned at Archimedes. “I thought I taught you better than to be amazed by charlatanism.”

“I admire it for what it is, not its intended effect,” Archimedes said. “Whatever you were doing went far beyond mere tricks.”

Sarah shrugged and turned back to Tanyanika. “That one isn’t as impressive as he makes it out to be and I don’t think I should try just yet to explain what really happened. I will say that it wasn’t me who got distracted.”

Tanyanika considered. “It sounds like all of the stories are exaggerations.”

“Tall tales with a strong element of truth, and I wouldn’t try to dispel the more fantastical bits if unrealistic expectations didn’t hold their own danger,” Sarah said. “I do have trouble reconciling the values where I grew up with the values here, and I am influential. Even when I try to behave myself, I introduce instability. Sometimes it’s so subtle that it’s hard to pay attention to until the result is staring me in the face.”

“Perhaps you yourself believe in implausible elements,” Tanyanika said.

“I don’t fully understand a lot of what happens and it feels like most of the time I’m getting by on moxie and blind luck,” Sarah said. “Can you at least accept that we want to be careful?”

“Of course,” Tanyanika said. “I don’t like it and I think you’re all being too extreme, but [better to be safe than sorry.]”

Sarah smiled. “Speaking of which, Archimedes is getting a bit stressed by this, so is there anything else that can’t wait?”

“We can talk again soon?” Tanyanika asked.

“I won’t make any promises,” Archimedes said.

Chixiksi took Tanyanika home, and Archimedes yelled, “What did you do to her? I’ve never seen Tanyanika be so cooperative.”

Sarah shook her head in confusion, and it was Ozker that said, “Tanyanika often acts like that when she gets what she wants.”

Archimedes narrowed his eyes and drew on his power. “You’ve told her more than I wanted you to.”

“And just how much obligation do I have to do what you want?” Ozker asked. 

“Since it seems you haven’t done any harm by it, I’m not going to raise a fuss, but taking that risk was not your call,” Archimedes said.

Ozker shrugged. “If that is all, Sarah and I need to have a discussion concerning the black-ribboners. Do you want to listen in?”

Archimedes winced as he considered. “If Kain catches me helping you, he is likely to kill me.”

“Perhaps not, depending on what you do,” Sarah said. “Do you think you can be aware of what’s going on and then resist the urge to pick a side?”

“I will not be pulled in too many directions,” Archimedes said.

Sarah shook her head. “If you can keep from getting emotionally involved in the outcome, if you can neutrally present the options and not try to influence us into a decision that you personally like, then that would be mediation.”

Archimedes shook his head. “I’m obligated to do what I must, even if it does end with my death.”

“We wouldn’t have given you a bluepill-redpill choice if there wasn’t a strong chance of finding a way for you to survive it,” Ozker said.

Sarah said, “Last night the black-ribboners were so happy that I survived that it turned into… I might just be freaked out because it was an overwhelming amount of attention, but I’m scared that they might be seeing me as something much larger than what I really am. I feel like if I make one wrong move, even just leaving without trying to defuse the situation, it’s going to get ugly.”

Ozker said, “Their [crowd-vibe] changed as they realized that your life was in danger. If Kain hadn’t ordered them to not get involved, they might have. It surprised me that Catullus had that flock from Valeholm under control during their involvement with your fight against Fortuna, so perhaps we should ask him for advice as well.”

“You’re seriously considering getting my brother involved in this?” Archimedes asked.

Sarah waved a talon in a manner that would be calming if she had soft human fingers. “He’s in a completely different position and can offer advice without much risk.”

“What is it that you intend to do?” Archimedes asked.

Sarah shrugged. “I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking for help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is as far as I got before I realized that I was stuck and needed to change things that were already published. Hopefully I can get "the time wedgie" up soon.


End file.
